Wishing You A

Happy New Year!

I have no idea what the new year is going to bring, I can only hope it's a bit calmer than the last. I'm personally really excited about the inauguration so I guess that's a pretty good start. And Hopefully I'll still be traveling to India and Sri Lanka over the summer permitting no major terrorist attacks or outbreaks of conflict. And hopefully my family won't be targeted and killed seeing as we're American tourists.

My point is that besides this I pretty much have no idea what this next year is going to hold, which is pretty liberating. At least I'm not trapped in rut doomed to repeat the same monotonous routines over and over, I'd like to hold that off until at least my mid-30's.

I hope you're all as excited as I am!

-Viv

goodbye 2008

Well I am posting, thanks to Blair and her new phone. :)

Maybe some people are sad to see 2008 go. I'm not. It's not that 2008 was all that bad but I know 2009 is going to beat it hands down. First of all it ends in a 9, that's an odd number divisible by 3. Second of all, I am going to be turning eighteen!!!!!!!!!! In like. . . a month and a half. I'm not sure the world is ready but I sure am. Third of all, everything just seems to be coming together for me in life like all of the sudden I've filled in the frame of a puzzle and I just have to make sure not to mess up the middle now.

I've posted or had someone post for me every Tuesday except for the one time I forgot. . . and it's been over 200 days that we've been writing this blog. That's pretty good. I'm a lot different than I was a whole year ago. Actually, I'm almost opposite. Now I want to go to college and I want to do well in school and I care about it. Now I know what and who matters to me. Now I feel just more optimistic I suppose. Now I can run a lot farther and I can play Rockband decently. I can stand up for myself more than I did, although sometimes it's still hard. I finally got what I wanted and then realized I was wrong about it in the first place. And it's because of that that I'm so happy today in a way. In fact, there's hardly anything that hasn't changed. (Is hasn't not a word because its underlined in red.)

Anyways I found this quiz so here we go.
1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
 I don't know. Lots of stuff? I got a business liscence. I'll go with that.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
 If I made resolutions last year I did not keep them. Yes.
3. What was the last text message you got? Blair texted me "Don't forget it's your blog day."
4. Did anyone close to you die?
 My cat, Pepper.
5. What states/countries did you visit?
 New York
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
 More common sense.
7. What date from 2008 will you remember?
 December 25th
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I'm doing really well in school? And I ran five miles.
9. What was your biggest failure?
 Not being assertive. . .
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
 1st surgery.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
 All my movies maybe? That's basically what I've purchased.
12. Are you happy with life right now? Yes, very much so.
13. Who was the last person who called you? Won
14. Where did most of your money go?
 Movies. . . It's sad isn't it.
15. Do you have any new regrets? Yes yes yes.
16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
 Maybe "Love in this Club" or "Whatever You Like." They're just catchy for me.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? 
happier b) thinner or fatter? thinner c) richer or poorer? . . . poorer maybe?
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Hung out with my friends.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
 . . . don't want to say.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
 Umm presents, biking, Rockband 2, dinner.
21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
 Yes.
22. What was your favorite TV program?
 New: Arrested Development. Old: The Office.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
 I don't really hate people.
24. What was the best book you read?
 I honestly can't remember.
26. What are you looking foward to? Right now? Thursday evening.
27. Did anything surprise you? Yes. I am doing well in chem. . . and that everything worked out so well.
28. What was your favorite film of this year?
 That's a hard one. Maybe Juno. That was this year right?
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
 My parents forgot my 17th birthday and gave me 17 dollars. . .
30. What are you most thankful for? Second chances. I usually need them.
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
 There were a lot more bad outfits than good ones unfortunately.
32. What kept you sane?
 I have absolutely no idea. . .
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
 It's between Michael Cera and Brandon Flowers
34. What political issue stirred you the most?
 I'm not really that good with politics. . .
35. Who did you miss?
 Pepper.
36. Who was the best new person you met?
 Conor. He's just so awesome. He taught me so much so far this year and he makes me laugh. If he wasn't in my classes they wouldn't be so interesting.
37. What's a song that sums up your year? "The Show" by Lenka. And i'ts also good :)


Happy New Year tomorrow everyone!! And a shout out to Erica!

-Lacey

The Last Monday

My last post of 2008.

And what a year 2008 was!

We have the first black presidential elect after a ridiculous war between the Republicans and Democrats. We found that Heath Ledger played both a convincing and frightening joker. And Iron Man wasn't the disappointment as expected. We couldn't get Love in this Club by Usher, Love Song by Taylor Swift, and Viva la Vida by Coldplay out of our heads. No one would stop talking about the latest episodes of House, Heroes, and SNL. We lost Heath Ledger, Bernie Mac, and Bobby Fischer. Two of us lost cats. And one of us lost a father. There were break-ups and couples formed. Blogs were made and friendships grew. We watched siblings go to college. There were arguments, huge fights, and quite a bit of drama, but we made it through. We started the 'toughest' school year yet. We've thought about our futures. We've faced tests. AP tests, SATs, ACTs, and the general tests of life. We laughed. We cried. We grew. We changed.

I think we all came out of this year older and wiser. At least I can only hope.

2009 gives us a fresh start. We have the oppurtunity to make new memories. I hope it turns out wonderfully.

-Brianna

Too Bright to See, Too Loud to Hear

Hello there, Blue Powerblogger here!

So my Christmas was basically awesome. I went to the mountains with my family and got to see my favorite people in the whole world, my cousins Rachel, Rebekah, and Matt. On day one, we went to a christmas tree farm where we chopped down our own christmas tree and then we returned to the cabin to decorate it. It was a cute little tree, less than six feet tall and four feet wide. It must have been a little heavier on one side though because while I was hanging ornaments on it, it fell over on top of me! We had to tie it to the wall. On day two we had "Polar Express Day", a day on which my cousins and I set up chairs to resemble the seats on a train and we watch The Polar Express while sipping hot chocolate. Day three was spent planning the "Third Annual Blairsville Cousins Christmas Pageant", a little performance we put on for our parents and grandparents. And day five was Christmas Eve. We made foam ornaments and door hangers and had our cousin gift exchange. 

So this brings us to Christmas morning. I had really wanted an ipod for Christmas because I have never had one, so I was looking forward to receiving one. I also asked for guitar hero world tour, because I am obsessed with that game. On Christmas morning, I woke up at 9:05 (the latest I've ever woken up for Christmas!) and went to open gifts. I got a couple of shirts, a pair of pants, a dress, and a picture for my room. Its not that I was ungrateful, but I guess I was just expecting more. My parents then told my sister and me to look at the tree. There was an ornament on the tree with a "to/from" label on it. Behind the ornament was a piece of twine. I started pulling on the twine and followed it to the floor, under a table, and out the window. It led to a box with a green tablecloth over it. beneath the cloth was guitar hero and the ipod! I almost started crying out of pure happiness. It was probably the best reaction to a gift I've ever had.

We left on saturday night, and I listened to Underoath for the entire seven hour drive home, of course. I didn't get back into town until two o' clock in the morning, and I had to wake up at nine for church. So it was basically a long night. And that brings an end to my Christmas shenanigans. 

Oh, and listen to "Too Bright to See, Too Loud to Hear". Its my new favorite song off of "Lost in the Sound of Separation". 

Until next week,

-Caroline 

Even If The Theme Was Last Week

Hola mujeres y hombres! I really suck at Spanish! Even though the Christmas theme was last week, I'm going to talk about it again!!!!

It wasn't Christmas that was interesting for me, but Christmas Eve. I promised a friend that I would play tennis with her and her friends whom I've never met til then. She told me she would be at my house around 9 to 9:30 in the morning. Well guess what? My alarm didn't go off! In fact, I set the alarm to go off at 8:30 pm instead! *Smacks himself for allowing blond moment* She came when I still had my bed head, the phone rang when she came in, I stubbed my toe on the way to the door, she ended up standing by the door for 3 minutes because the guy wouldn't stop talking, and to wrap it all up, she waited on the couch while I got ready. It was the best morning of my life (note sarcasm).

Tennis itself was pretty good. I got to be "Coach June" for a while. Just me and a bunch of girls... Bleh. Let me also say that I was tortured in the car because I was listening to Asians attempting to rap. Anyway, after tennis we played pool and I lost. I'm terrible at pool but it was still fun ^_^. Afterwards, we went to Mo Mo's where we ordered a gimungulous (I invented a new word!) pizza. I barely finished the 3rd slice.

The afternoon ended and my friend dropped me off at my house. Thus the adventure began. My dad came home a little bit later and picked me up so we could go to the homeless shelter. This was a big deal for me because this was my first time meeting a hobo. IT'S A BIG DEAL! Our church does a program to feed the homeless something better than the prison food style delicates they serve in the shelter once a month. So when we got there, we lashed out our plastic gloves and started heating up the grills. I was the pickle man =D Bread, put on mayo, put on the lettuce, then the tomato and onions, fish the pickles out of the jar and put them on (that's me!), put on the hamburger, spread the fries next to it, now it's ready for the person. Make, breathe, repeat. Really though, I was amazed at how many people came. The line was huge and there was almost a fight because someone tried to cut in line. Most of them were really nice actually. A lot of people were thankful and told us," Merry Christmas!" as we worked. All I could do was smile and tell them "Merry Christmas" back. There were times when I wished I could do more =(

We went to church after the deed was done. We were to play/sing in a Christmas program there. Watching the homeless eat was torture to my dad because they were having dinner while we were handling food we couldn't eat. While he went to get dinner, I went to the car and brought out a very dusty violin. I didn't want to play but I was the only one in our group that could. My dad finished eating and he gathered everyone in our group for a quick practice session (and our ONLY practice session. We decided on this on last minute terms). We practiced for ten minutes (with very off-key voices) and decided that was enough. I, however, did not stand for the out of tune notes I played so I practiced for half an hour more. I guess the OCD musician in me came out.

We were ninth in the program. The show was very laughable. There were technical difficulties in EVERY act including ours. The microphones blew out, the music wouldn't play, the power point was a later edition, etc. Even in ours, we couldn't use the amp for the guitar because some idiot took the only cable out. In the end, my OCD self was satisfied. 75% of my violin skill returned in the span of 40 minutes and I landed every note in Jingle Bells and Silent Night. I got a lot of compliments ^_^. Oh, did I mention all the acts were being judged? We placed 6th out of the 12 places and received two hefty bags of rice. The pastor told everyone "good job" and everyone recieved two bars of soap. Rice and soap... Awesome.

Lastly, here's a Halloween-style Christmas video about Frosty the Snowman! (Excuse the profanity)


That's all folks. Join us tomorrow for an awesome post from Caroline!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!^2
(Too lazy to check for errors... Someone tell me if I messed up something)

-June

Looking for a Used Car

I think if Ryan weren't there to keep me on top of things, I would have a lot of problems.
Yesterday was Friday, as he kindly reminded me.
On the way back from a small Asian party on Christmas Day, it was really foggy, and at some point it smelled kind of smokey outside. I was really tired, so it felt like I was in China. I was definitely nice how almost everyone was so happy. Jonathan, I really liked your video, even though you were not telling a story in it.
Well, Friday was a tiring and boring day as usual.
I went to the second car dealership of recent times, and limped around, as I have been for a week now. It's really hard to find used cars, as my mother has pointed out more than once.
So, we sat there for three hours, waiting for them to figure out what was wrong with the car that we already had because it made funny noises that I have never noticed.
It is 11:11am!
So, today is the day to pack because I am leaving to get my passport renewed. Fun stuff... Yesterday during dinner, I remembered that a very very long time ago, my mother had to throw away a little plastic baggie of cucumbers or oranges or something because we couldn't take it into this room in which we were doing things to go to America. I knew I'd have to wait another few hours when we got there. She took my little hand and told me to hurry up.
Jack is looking for an ALW, an Asian Lady Wife. Anyone interested?

On another note:
"Baby, it's fact
That our love is true
The way black is black
And blue is just blue
My love is true
It's a matter of fact
Oh, and you love me too
It's as simple as that
Baby, our love is true"

I hope you had a great Friday.

-Kejing

Merry Christmas!

Well, today is a The Power Bloggers first! 'Tis Christmas! And in the spirit of firsts, I thought it might be fun to do another- a video post (that actually works this time!).
I'm sorry for the quality of video- that'd be the crappy webcam we have. Futhermore, I'm really sad I couldn't read "The Night Before Christmas" because the microphone kept acting up. It's a real pity because it's a pop-up book with all sorts of neatness packed away into it. Anyways- here's the video!



Merry Christmas
- Jonathan