Monday, April 10, 2006

It's Huge

Update-

Due to the fact that blogger isn't exactly designed to handle a ton of pictures in one post, I have moved the gallery to google pages. It can now be located here:

http://cjthatcher.googlepages.com/home

It might take a bit to load, because there are some pretty high res pics getting shrunk down, but it's definitely worth it.

The contest is coming along super nice. So far, we've got 8 pieces of quality art up for your viewing pleasure, with at least 3 more on the way. We've had contributions from Myself, Nick, Jason, Leslie, Autumn, Molly, and Peter. Kyle, Levi, and Marissa have art on the way.

So go ahead, email me your creation. The rules are pretty simple; make a painting in MS Paint. It has to be original, no pasting in anything that wasn't made by you in paint. That's about the only restriction. After a sufficient amount of time, we'll vote on the paintings, and the winner recieves a poem written especially for them by me. But that's not the real prize, the real prize is letting the world see your art. Already culture has blossomed on this little blog, it's been very cool. I'm super excited for this, it's shaping up great. So c'mon people, show me the talent.

In other news, there's going to be some changes coming to the blog. Readership is up, so I'm looking for new ways to improve things. The plan so far:

1. Picture and Quotes of the week. This means that when you show up, there's gonna be a new picture, and a new quote every week. Something to keep you coming back, enlightened, and entertained

2. A welcome post. Instead of having the new post at the top, I'm gonna have one constant welcome post that tells you what's new, and has the picture and quote of the week in it. So, if I write something new, it'll show up below that, but the welcome blog will tell you when I last updated, what the new stuff is, where to find it, and all that good stuff. It'll be an easier way for you to see what's going on, and for me to keep track of things.

3. More branching. The Gallery got moved to another location because it's easier that way. Expect more of this fun stuff. There's going to be all sorts of new things coming, and so some of it will have to be located elsewhere. I'm gonna start relying on google pages alot more, because they've got a pretty nice setup over there.

4. More You. I know you all like listening to me rant on all day, but sometimes it's more fun to see what you guys have to say. This paint competition is only the beginning. If any of you have anything you want me to adress on this here blog, or anything you want thrown up, email it over to me, and I'll see what I can do. I'm gonna be doing more competitions in the future, as well as some other fun stuff. Right now the fields wide open, and I'm very open to suggestions.

5. More Cowbell. *cowbell noise cowbell noise cowbell noise cowbell noise*


Ah, I'm excited for the future, things are looking good.

And now, it's time to go back to the classics. All this talk of new and improved crap, it's cool and all, but we all need the good old classics.

So what's new? The wind still smells really nice outside, Track is still alot of fun, and I still dream about frisbee. Track was a super easy practice today, because we've got the makeup meet tomorrow. I'm excited for it. It's only a half meet, because we're just finished what we had to cancel because of the rain a while ago. We got halfway through the meet, then decided to call it because it was freezing and raining and all sorts of terrible. So, basically, i'm running the 3200 tomorrow, and I'm gonna be raging. I totally got ownt at the 3200 at the jordan invitational, but I'm gonna do good tomorrow. We had a pasta party tonight at the school, so we're all full of spaghetti, and ready to dominate tomorrow. It's gonna be good stuff.

We talked alot about summer cross country at practice today, and I'm getting pretty excited for that too. I didn't get to do summer CC last year cause I was a slacker, but this year I'm gonna dominate. We're going to go around to the junior highs next week to recruit people for the team, and that ought to be good. We really do need more people, but it shouldn't be too hard to recruit. I've already got Peter signed up, so that'll be fun no matter what happens. It's really gonna be cool though, because it's gonna keep me in shape through the summer, and help me improve a ton. As it stands now, we've got morning practices every monday, wednesday, and friday, and evening practices tuesday and thursday. That'll be good, cause that means I can wake up and go running before work. I'm excited for it. I've been trying to recruit people, but it hasn't been too successful as of yet. I don't really wanna use this paragraph as leverage to get you to sign up, but c'mon, it's gonna be good. There's gonna be food, and girls, and more food. Mike Garudo's gonna be there.

No but really, if any of you have any desire at all to get in crazy good shape, hang out with a bunch of cool kids all day, and make your summer worth something instead of a waste of time, contact me about this, because it's gonna be good. The more people we have, the better it's gonna be, but it'll be great no matter what. However, I respect your right to stay and get fat over the summer. If that's your thing, well, more power to ya.

In the end, I'm excited to where my cool meet shorts to the junior high for some mad seduc- err... recruiting.

In other great news, There's gonna be some mad action frisbee this friday night, 7:00, at bennion elementary. Any and everybody is welcome to come, and it's gonna be good stuff. We've already got quite a few people coming, and I'm way excited for it. There's gonna be a bunch of new people, but at least 2 old people, so it'll be swell. Come get your groove on.

Also noteworthy, region dance this saturday. w00t! I'm gonna be there, and so you all ought to be too. There's gonna be food, and girls, and more food. Mike Garudo's gonna be there!

So, I took the ACT this saturday. Good crap. 5 hours of testing isn't as fun as it sounds. And lets face it, it doesn't even start out sounding like all that much fun. See, you don't really need to take the test as a sophie. Everybody told me that I didn't need to, but for some insane reason I wanted to. It all stems from 9th grade. Well, even before that I guess, probably 7th grade.

See, back in 7th grade, the year started pretty good. I had had 4 siblings go through the school before me, so I like to think I had a name that preceded me. Since I had had 4 siblings go through, I pretty much wanted to be like them.

So, things start out. English becomes my favorite class of the day, but the other classes aren't too bad themselves. About a month or so into school, they start making announcements about tryouts for nerd team. I knew I wanted to do nerd team, so I definitely showed up.

If you're trying out for the buzzer team, Peck gives you a little test. It's got about 20 questions, ranging from "Whos the current President/prime minister/wahtever of Mexico?" to "If a man is 6 feet tall and casts a shadow of 3.5 feet, and a building next to him casts a shadow of 20 feet, how tall is the building?" All sorts of good crap. So, I fill that out to the best of my ability. The last question on there is "Is there anything I should know about you?"

Well, I sat there and looked at that for about 5 minutes. See, I really wanted to make the team. My brother Andrew had been on the team the last 3 years, and Peck loved him. I sat there and debated as to whether I really should write "I'm Andrew Thatcher's little brother" or not. In the end, I wrote it, then erased it in shame, then turned the paper in.

Long story short, I made the team, good job Chris! whooo. I show up to the first couple practices, and don't do too well. I'm classified as a "Seventh Grade Boy" and that means I won't shutup. The first couple weeks I spend about 70% of my energy with flirting with Tanya, and the other 30% on getting down to nerd business.

So basically, I was a frito, a weeshbag. I just wasn't kicking butt like I ought to be. This was a problem. After the first few weeks though, we finally broke out the buzzers. Before we had just been going around in circles answering questions. No more, now it was hand to hand combat.

At this point, things heated up. There are few things I really don't like to do, and one of those is lose. I'm a terrible loser. I just don't like doing it. Another thing I don't like doing is getting shown up by anyone, especially Jason.

Lets face it, I'm a competitive jerk. I wasn't willing to study just for the merit of learning and doing good for the team. But as soon as Jason thoroughly wiped the floor with me in practice, I knew what I had to do. Jason was one of the nerdiest kids I know back in 7th grade. He was one of the kids that asked his teachers for more homework. His life revolved around school, piano, and pokemon. Ultimately, he was the ultimate 7th grade Asian. He worked dang hard those first few weeks of practice, and I slacked. Once the buzzers came out, he proved his superiority.

I was trounced, humiliated, obliterated. In front of Tanya.

My pride was hurt, and I vowed to beat Jason. I went home and I studied like mad. I studied all 7th grade year way hard. Jason, catching on, did the same thing. He was just like me, he didn't want to get beat. He loved his position as the golden boy. Peck thought he was amazing, and she thought the rest of us were lame-os. He loved that, and he wasn't about to let go without a fight. It was a classic arms race. USSR builds a big missle, so we build 2 of them. We build 2, so they build 4, then send a satellite into space. in response, we build 8, then put a man on the moon.

It was just like that. I learned the capital of Sudan, he learned who wrote moby dick. We were mortal enemies, locked in a battle of wits and sacrifice. He always had the edge on me, I'm not ashamed to say it. Jason was a better nerd than I was.

But, 8th grade came, and Jason got a smell of the real world. Something clicked, he wanted to hang out with girls or something. I'm not quite sure, but you could tell that things were changing. One day he confided in me, "Ya know, I'm starting to think that maybe pokemon aren't as cool as they used to be..."

I was shocked, frightened, but above all, I was excited. Jason changing could only mean that part of his nerd powers would have to slip. I saw my opening, and I took it. I was the nerdiest kid alive in 8th grade. I studied during independent reading time. While all of you were reading fun stuff, I was busting out the nerd packets. I spent ages in those things, and I learned how things went.

In jason's defense, he didn't lose it all. He was still right there, but for the first time ever, I had a slight edge. Some days he still trounced me, but I still felt the power of winning more than losing.

We were still competing though. I knew if I took a breath he'd reach up and strangle me. And so, I pushed on, and he pushed on. The only difference was that the tables had turned a little.

Through it all we were still good friends and all, we just secretly hoped the other one would make a fool of themselves in a game. To this day, we still compete at almost everything. That's where the ACT idea came in. Back in 9th grade, we decided that we were both gonna take the ACT that summer, and then compare scores. That would be the ultimate test. Nerd games can be biased, whatever. The ACT is supposed to be pure. If we both take the same test, we'll both know what we did good on. We'd both know who was better at english, and who was better at science. It was to be the ultimate test.

Then, for some reason, it never happened. I don't know why, it just didn't.

And so we never really knew. The mystery was unsolved. This school year though, I saw the possibilities again. I wanted to take it, and I wanted Jason to take it as well. It was finally going to happen. We talked it over, and we decided we'd take it April 8th, at cottonwood, together. Winner take all. Of course, we didn't ever say that "winner take all" thing out loud, but we both knew it. I don't care how you say it, I still want to beat Jason.

And ya know, I know he wants to beat me.

So, we both signed up for it. We were ready, I took some online practice tests, read up on it, got some advice, I was ready to go for it. I can only assume Jason did similar things. Then, one terrible day, Jason informed me that he'd have to bail, on account of some piano competition.

Once again, my ultimate test fell through. I was still signed up though, and it costs alot of money to change the date, so I went through with it. So, without my little jason to accompany me, I braved the halls of cottonwood, and took the test of death.

In the end, it wasn't too bad. Multiple choice is a pretty nice feature, and it comes standard. I'm pretty confident on everything, but I'm pretty sure math was my weakest subject. One of the big problems for alot of people on the ACT is the time factor. They give you a limited amount of time for each test, and it's no walk in the park. I was on pace for every single test except for math. I had my trusty watch on, and I paced myself through. There were 60 math problems, and 60 minutes to do them. As I got towards the last 6, she said we had 5 minutes left. Among those 6 were 3 that I couldn't get really easy. One would have taken a ton of plugging into the calculator, the other was a bunch of trial and error, and the third just confused the heck out of me. So, I did the ones I could, and made good guesses on the 3 hard ones.

Other than that though, I finished all the tests with pretty good time, until we got to the writing test. The writing test is a new deal mostly, and it's not required yet. It's optional so far, but alot of colleges are starting to require it, and I figured if this was to be the ultimate test, I might as well go for it.

You've got 30 minutes to choose a side on a topic, and then write for that side. It's a classic persuasive essay, I've been doing them since 5th grade. They give you a topic, and you respond. Cake.

Well, except for the 30 minute part. My topic was a pretty easy one to pick a side on, but I spent way too long brainstorming and thinking about it. The first 10 minutes were devoted to thinking and other various wastes of time. By the time I finished my intro paragraph, the lady stood up and said we had 5 minutes left.

Good crap. I've never written so fast in my life. I guess it's a good thing that I had thought before hand, because I definitely wasn't thinking anymore. I have no idea what I wrote really... allI know is that my hand hurts, and I started talking about bus boycots and who can drink at what drinking fountain. Don't ask.

So yeah, I tanked the writing test, but I'm pretty sure that everything else went Ok. it'll be way interesting to see what I get, I'm excited to find out. I could find out in 2 weeks, if I wanted to pay 8 bucks. But ya know, I'm not going to. The ACT is just one big scam. Well, I guess it's half test, half scam. It's super expensive, and it takes 4 to 7 weeks to get your scores back. It's a bubble sheet guys, I could have my results the same day if I really wanted to. They just hold them to make you pay extra to get the early ones. Blasted scam.

Anyways, I figure I've written for way too long. This thing is going to be huge. The moral of the story is, life is on the up and up. I always write about the future, what I'm going to do, what's gonna happen. Well, I'm starting to make things happen. I'm starting to be able to say "Today I did great in track" instead of "Tomorrow, I'm gonna work hard in track." Things are working pretty good, the paint competition is coming along. I finally get to play frisbee this weekend, you all ought to come. Region dance saturday, spring break, and things are going to be great. Things are great. Sure, life has its downers every once in a while. I don't understand alot of things that are going on, but I'm working on it. I've been working on it for the past 15 years, but I'm still working. And ya know, I'm not going to stop working on it. In the end, life goes on, but it's up to you to make it go the direction you want it to go. This is Christopher Thatcher, -out-

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pool party baby.
It was a cool party.

riss. said...

I suck at MS paint.

And dude, you are such a nerd.

And I 100% agree with Leslie.

Maybe I'll comment again soon, and leave something good like last time. But until then, feel free to not keep my crappy 10 minute art up. but if you DO keep it up, its called "self portrait" not "flamingo"

Anonymous said...

Lol, I was a pretty big nerd. I will own that ACT. You don't even know.

...I was amazing in 7th grade, and still pretty good in 8th grade. Then came 9th grade, and I got owned. So good job Chris.

I'm still smarter, you know.