Saturday, June 24, 2006

Stray Mulch

Mmmm. I like today, it was pretty nice. The temperature was nice, the sunlight was super cool, the wind was blowing, and things were just dandy. It was a really nice day, pretty peaceful. I should have taken a picture.

This post has been in the works for a very long time, so it might end up pretty long. There's a ton of stuff that I've thought of this past week that I wanted to include, but since I didn't write it down, alot will be forgotten. That's alright though, I hope that the good stuff will stay.

Friday's cross country practice was super super cool. We decided to do some cross training, so we did our workout in the pool. I really enjoyed it, even though I swim like crap. Honestly, I never really learned how. I've got no skills, but at least I tried hard. We played some pool-basketball when the hard work was done, and my team got thoroughly owned by kirt/kurt/kert/whatever. That boy's got skills I tell ya. Moral of the story is, cross country is going well. Hansen knows what he's doing, and I think the team is going to be good. We're still very very short, we need more people. I don't think that's going to happen, so we'll just have to focus on making the people we've got into crazy running machines. We'll get there. I'm tired of having us be the region II whippingboys.

We had a scout camp last night, that was cool. I really like scout camps, up until the point where you've got to make the kids start working on something. It's fun to hang out with them, they're pretty funny guys. I'm a ton older than all of them, so they think I'm cool, it's great. We went out to antelope island for a bit, but since we couldn't get a reservation we ended up sleeping in my backyard. But really, it was good times, alot of fun. Antelope island was super beautiful, way awesome. My arm is sore from skipping rocks, I finally succeeded. I had never ever been able to skip rocks before yesterday, but I was kicking their butts. It was pro, I had 7 or 8 bounces sometimes. Whoosh, I love gyroscopic intertia.

Anyways, scout camp is really fun until you tell them to do something. Then it's frustrating, cause they're not very good at tents, or service, or listening, or gathering around, or doing whatever it is you need them to do. Yay for a whole generation of ADD children.

I washed the van today. I spent about an hour on it, because I'm not too efficient. I'm not good at washing cars, but I enjoyed it. I was home alone, so I popped my speakers from the computer up on the windowsill and played some music while I washed. I worked pretty hard on it, washing and whatnot.

Yeah, in the end, it's still ugly. It just has less bugs on it. Despite my washing, it's an ugly van, but I love it anyways.

Has anyone else noticed that technology doesn't ever happen as fast as people say it will? By all means, it could, but it doesn't. Why is my car not running on hydrogen? Why do I still do dishes? Why do I still get a cold? Why is the PA system at taylorsville still hard to hear?

Stuff doesn't happen as fast as people say it will. Nobody really knows why. Sometimes it's funding, sometimes it's just the fact that people aren't willing to take a chance on it. Sometimes old stuff is so engrained in people that changing to DVD means work, and that's way too hard.

See, progress shouldn't be stopped by this stuff, should it? When we think of killer alien civilizations coming to kick out butts, we don't think that they have inferior style death lasers because the government keeps giving the weapons contract to the same people who have had it for hundreds of years. We expect state of the art kill-rays, cutting edge destruction, provided by their best and brightest. We don't expect politics to get in the way of their war machine.

But here we are, and the same stuff is happening. If the aliens don't do it, why should we? It's cause we're old school, because we're not entirely focused on progress, we're focused on other such fun stuff.

Case in point: Where the crap are my metrics?

When the angry aliens come to kick our butts, I expect them to have a measurement system that makes sense, is uniform throughout their scary armada, and that is based on the number 10. Anything less, and I'd feel cheated by the intergalactic invaders. I mean, we got beat by guys without a standard measurement system? That's bubkiss.

See, the blue aliens and green aliens on the ship are going to get along great. And they're gonna have the same measurement system. They're not going to be flying any of their probes into the moon on accident cause they're measurement system sucks. They're an elite fighting machine, and their grandma uses the same measurements.

And here we are. Are we going to be able to compete with the alien scum's elite synchronized measurements? Are we going to be fighting them away from our barbecued meat with yard sticks, or with meter sticks? When the time comes, will we be ready to rise up and defy our alien overlords, and with fire in our eyes, declare that no, they'll never ingest our pasty white 68 kilogram bodies? Will we be victorious, or will we be defeated by the culture who didn't care about grandma in her lexus, the culture that changed the roadsigns anyways, the culture that smells funny and has goo all over them?

It starts here. I'm preparing now to kick those crazy moonjerks out of here. When they get here, I'm going to be using metrics. And I'm gonna pick up my meter long stick, and wail on them until they can be wailed upon no more.

I'm not going to wait for them to start teaching it in public schools. I'm not going to wait for them to change the roadsigns. I'm not going to have them forcefeed it to me. The stand starts now.

As of now, I'm converting to metrics. There will be people that tell me it's hopeless. People that tell me I'm a fool for driving 48 kilometers per hour in a 30 mile per hour zone. People that tell me a 5k is too far to run, that 3 miles will suffice. You know what I say to those people? Get out of there, you sick alien parasites. Burrow out of their spinal columns, and give me my friends back.

So that's it. I'm on metrics. I weigh 68 kg, and I'm 183 centimeters tall. I run 1600 meters in 5 minutes, 2 seconds. I got 10 frisbees in the mail, each weighing 175 grams. Life is good, and those aliens don't stand a chance.

Really, we can't wait for metrics to jump upon us. We all want it, we all know that it's what must happen. Nobody in their right mind thinks that we can preserve this blasted english system for too much longer. Nobody, nobody but the cosmic spies, trying to keep us in ignorance.

But if we're going to convert, we've got to do it now. We're the solution. Not our children, not our parents, but us. It's me, and it's you. The greatest generation didn't pull it off, so we've got to. We don't need world war II to make us feel cool, we just need metrics.

So here it starts. With me. Nobody is feeding this to me, it's my choice. The metric rebellion is upon us. Who's with me?

The project: 100% metric use this coming week. No more English for me. When I drive, I'm gonna drive in metrics. When I talk about stuff, it's in metrics. When I run, I run in kilometers. When I drink milk, I drink in liters. I'm sticking it to the man, join me.



You know, there are 3 other blogs that I frequent. Nick's, Jaron's, and Marissa's. All of their URL's start with an F. Which brings me to my next point. Me, Nick, and Jaron are not all that similar.

I mean sure, we all poop. Everybody poops. we've got all that human stuff that makes us 99.9% similar to one another. I've written about it before. But really, take away the poop, and we're not that similar. I like both those guys, they're way cool, but we're way different. Not to mention, my URL starts with a C.

Marissa is a girl, and we're pretty different too. We're all unique, bring something different to the table. There are lots of people with blogs, and way too few people that write in their blogs. They come and they go. What's the point? I don't know.

Ya know, a few days ago I called to memory something that I had said ages ago. Way back in the day, before I started talking about 'back in the day.' This was the real day, probably when I was 6 or 7.

We were going through a carwash, one of the cool automated ones. I thought it was way cool, what with the spraying, and the brushes, and the haven glaven.

So, I said to my mom, "When I've got a car, I'm gonna go through one of these with all the windows down. That'll be cool."

So mom says to me, "Haha, by then you'll care alot more about the interior of your car. I bet you won't."

She left me with two questions in my head that day. Number one, what the crap is an interior? Number two, will I really change my mind?

Here I am, 16 years old, I've got a license, and I'm insured. I can drive. I don't have a car, but I can sure drive to and from cross country. I will never drive through a car wash with all the windows down, I care way too much about the interior of the car. Mom was right.

The trouble is, way back in the day, I really meant it. I really did, I wanted to do it, and I thought I would. The 7 yeard old version of me said it, and he meant it. Over the years, I've changed. Looking back, I think that I was an idiot for wanting that. I'm different, but the 7 year old me is still the same. He still said it, and he still meant it.

Case in point: We're going to change. I look back to stuff I wrote a year ago, and I'm way different. I think that some of the stuff that I said was totally ridiculous. I think I was an idiot.

But the truth remins, I meant it. That was me. Pure, unfiltered me. It's not the same me as it is now, but it was me.

So here I stand, saying this all today. This is me. 16 year old me, and I mean every word of it. When I look back on this in a year, I want the 17 year old version of me to know loud and clear that this is what I really mean. This is what I want to say, this is what I think. You might think I'm crazy, you might think I'm dumb. You know what older me? You better run faster than me, or I'm coming for you. If you don't throw a frisbee farther than me, you're in trouble. If your kidneys hurt, you're an idiot. Old me, you better not be lame. You better have a job by now. Old me, you're on metrics. That's not even a question. Old me, this post is what now me really thinks and really feels. Now me says hello, how's the future?

This is really me, this is what I mean. As I change, I'll think that parts of this post are ridiculous. But for now, this is really me. That's the best that I can do.

Hmm, the winds of change are blowing. Sorta like Canada blows, but more in my direction. I think I'm ready to stop repeating lines from previous entries, and start being alot more social. Yup, I don't think I'm tired of girls anymore. Nah, I don't 'like' anybody, but I think I'm ready to consider the possibilities. It'd be nice to have a reason to do my hair in the mornings.

So, quick review:
1) My van is still ugly, despite my best efforts
2) The scout troop needs to start ordering ridelin in bulk
3) Aliens are coming, and the blue ones and green ones get along
4) I'm gonna smack an alien with a meter stick.
5) They're gonna eat you unless you join my frisbee club and use the metric system
6) Me and Nick, we're tight, but I'm not Nick, and he's not me, and that's ok.
7) I mean this stuff, at least I do tonight. Maybe I won't mean it tomorrow, but for tonight, this is pure.
8) I'm not afraid of girls. If ever there was a time to flirt with me, it'd be now.

And so there you have it. Good times, good times indeed. I got 10 frisbees in the mail on friday. That enbiggens my frisbee count considerably. I now have 12 functional. 11 of them are 175, 1 of them is 185 and lit. Wheels are in motion, cogs are turning. I'm 183 centimeters tall, and I'm loving it. I'll cya'll later.

36 and 23

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Tribal

Ah, good times. It's been what, 3 weeks or summer? Still no job. I'm honestly ready to consign myself to my fate and go work for harmons. Yay for 5.25 an hour. So, we'll see what happens. Still waiting for someone to come knock and my door and tell me they want to pay me to sleep and play frisbee.

But things have been going good. Aside from not accomplishing anything, I've been having fun. We ran 9 miles the other day for cross country. That was insane, but I enjoyed it. It was sorta hard, because I don't think the whole team was ready for it, but we did alright. I didn't really run tonight, but I got a tiny bit in playing some capture the flag. What can I say, I'm a slacker.

I've determined that I need to carry a purse, or maybe a fanny pack. Every time I go outside I say to myself, "Dangit, I should have brought my frisbee." or maybe, "Dangit, I should have brought my spikes." I always need something that I don't have. That's it. I'm carrying a purse.

I've discovered something that I think is very clever. Eating chocolate chips straight out of the bag is a very enjoyable and economical way to eat chocolate. You've got to get the semi-sweet milk chocolate ones, but if you can handle that you're set. Hear me out here.

First off, a bag of chocolate chips is pretty cheap at maceys. You've gotta get maceys brand, but they're good. Then, you've got a huge amount of chocolate that you can share with as many people as you'd like, or eat all to yourself. It tastes just like a hersheys bar, but there's more of it, and it's cheap. Per ounce of chocolate, it's a killer deal. That's what I'm gonna do from now on. Walk around with a bag of chocolate chips. I'm thrifty, who needs candy bars.

My awesome box of 10 frisbees should get here friday. Really slow shipping, but that's alright, it's gonna be worth it. 10 frisbees. Who do you know that owns 10 frisbees? Nobody, nobody except me.

You know, I miss mystery blank. I'm not even sure who it was, where they were from. I don't know if it was a guy or a girl. But for some reason they stopped leaving cool comments. Where'd they go? I really hope it was a girl, that'd be a lot cooler than having a guy leaving me cool comments saying that I make them smile. But oh well, I was making somebody smile, and now they've left. Where oh where did you go mystery blank? I miss my mystery blank.

I've discovered something about myself in the past few months. I really love thinking of ideas and stuff, but I don't really like the execution. for example, Stephanie wants me and Andrew to build her a reading loft for her classroom. It's going to be this two leveled reading paradise for her kindergartners. It's going to be really pimp, I'm excited. Me and Andrew are both really nerdy, so we thought of all sorts of cool ways to maximize support and all this other junk. We had a blast planning it, there's something about that that just appeals to my brain.

So, we have this awesome plan. We've got to build it later. That's a bummer.

Is anybody else like that? I love the nerdy problems that I've got to solve. I want to build all sorts of awesome stuff, but I don't really wanna do it. I just wanna dream about it. It's easier that way, and I can stay in my comfy chair.

What's the deal with frisbee anyways? I'm torn. half of me wants to get everybody to show up, so we can teach everybody how to play and have a fun social event. The other half of me wants 16 people there. 7 on 7, with one sub on each team. That half wants a real tough game, evenly matched, fight to the death. The fluffy side of me wants a bunch of people sitting on the hill watching, people tossing a frisbee on the spare field, and a more relaxed game. I don't know who to be loyal to. The intense game is more fun for me, that's for sure, but that doesn't exactly promote my frisbee agenda. How can I expect to have everybody playing frisbee if only 16 people know how to play? So what should I do? I'm not sure yet. I don't even know if we're playing frisbee this Friday. Last time was sorta bunk. It's not the same without Brad. I played like trash, and we had way too many people. I don't know. Once school starts, it's going to be better though. We're gonna have clinics, teach everybody to play. We're gonna teach the classic, the forehand, and maybe even a little hammer. We're going to mold a whole new generation of frisbee studs. We're gonna run a mile before every clinic, it's going to be amazing. In my head, this looks like it makes so much sense. Everybody's gonna be fiercely loyal to the club. It's gonna be like a dream, 20 or so people in gym shorts, listening to what I tell them to do. People mastering the forehand left and right, people using the pancake approach instead of the football approach. People finding true joy and health through frisbee and that mile I make them run.

The truth is, it can't end up that awesome. But hey, maybe we'll come close. I could do a clinic every gold day after school. We just need people to be interested. I can teach frisbee, I've done it before. We've got materials, we've got enough frisbees. We could pull it off, we just need the loyal support.

In related news, Steph said that I could come to her class one day next year and teach her kids some frisbee skills for PE. It's going to be awesome, a bunch of kindergartners trying to forearm. Score it!

I feel old. I don't like loud music. I always listen to my music real quiet. Maybe it's so I don't bother people, maybe loud music just makes me uncomfortable. I like quiet music, what can I say. I do like music though, it's got crazy skills that I don't.

Whoohoo, I found my digimon cards from years past. They remind me of good times back in the day. Say what you want, that was a cool show. It owned pokemon. It was interesting, and had alot of cool elements. Ah, good times back in the day, with my cousin scott before he went crazy. We'd get together to watch it, and if we missed it we'd be sure to have it taped. It was professional, good show.

My predictions for the NBA finals: The Heat are going to win game 6 in overtime, taking the championship. Take that Mavericks.

Hmm, time for an interesting segment. Where my loyalties lie:

As per internet giants: Google over Yahoo/microsoft/everyone
As per high schools: T-ville over Murray
As per Junior High: Eisenhower over all
As per Elementary: Plymouth over Calvin Smith
As per Burger: Wendy's Junior Bacon Cheeseburger and/or Carls Junior Famous Star Burger
As per track events: Mile, 2 mile, 4x4 over sprints
As per foreign allies: Great Britain over Canada
As per old school monsters: Digimon over pokemon
As per vehicls: Saturn Ion, I dunno why. Don't even know that it's a saturn. But I saw a green one today, it was pimp.
As per Anti-Virus: PC-cillin. But basically anything other than Norton. Down with Norton.
As per web browser: Firefox over IE, for sure.
As per states: Utah over Idaho
As per stores: Walmart over all
As per Athletic Brands: Venezuelan NikeAdidas over all
As per processors: AMD over Intel
As per Network: Wired over Wireless
As per sports: Frisbee over basketball over raquetball over soccer over football over baseball. Boo baseball.
As per game developers: Blizzard over Westwood. (Oldschool, but hey)
As per consoles: Xbox over cube over ps2
As per Next Gen: who knows, except that PS3 under all.
As per Windows: Vista over XP
As per Operating Systems: Windows over Linux over Mac. Boo mac.
As per Bands: BNL/Coldplay/Old stuff over all
As per email: Gmail over all. Boo hotmail.
As per twins: James over Levi.
As per music: Junior Choir over Jazz Band
As per TV: Old school simpsons over New school Simpsons
haha, just kidding Levi, you're both cool.
As per Insulin: Novolog over Humalog
As per Insulin 2: Lantus over all
As per Toothbrush: OralB crossaction Plus
As per cheese: String cheese and mild cheddar
As per bread: Grandma Sycamore's white bread. Followed closely by Grandma S sunflower stuf
As per online computer parts: Newegg.com
As per movies: X-men 3/Cars over the rest
As per school stuff: Whiteboard over Chalkboard
As per office suites: Open office over Microsoft Office
As per Xbox controllers: S over Fatty
As per Mad action: DDR over Guitar Hero
As per running: Track over Cross Country
As per school people: Mama Withers owns all.
As per Nasa: Yes. Go to the moon.
As per file sharing: Boo. You're not a haxxor cause you've got limewire. "oooh, big man."
As per movie theaters: Dollar Theater over 5 dollar theater on redwood and 90th or something over all
As per footwear: Real shoes over old man slippers over flip-flops
As per watches and clock: Digital over analog
As per measurements: Metrics over English. Sigh.
As per North Korea: Shock and Awe, then hand them over to South Korea. Let your people have food Dingus.
As per Iran: Shrugs. Grow up Ayatolah. Shave that facial hair.
As per United States: Not too shabby. Conservative over Liberal
As per air conditioning: Swamp cooler over central air
As per city: Taylorsville over Murray. Murray sucks.
As per slow brother up north: Canada over Idaho
As per ABA basketball: Utah Snowbears over Salt Lake Dream
As per bodies of water: Atlantic over Pacific
As per local bodies of water: Great Salt Lake over Utah Lake
As per colleges: Utah State over BYU over U
As per science: Physics over Chemistry
As per old school NBA: Pistons over Lakers
As per glasses: Mostly full over half empty
As per corrective lenses: Glasses over contacts.
As per peanut butter: Chunky
As per Ice cream: Vanilla over chocolate
As per employment: Great Harvest over Jamba Juice over Harmons
As per Lawn Mowers: Old school over self propelled. Grow a pair and do it yourself.
As per Crazy foriegn dictators: Castro's too fun to watch fall over.
As per Late night: Jay Leno over conan
As per teachers: Morris over Peck over Ward over Olsen over MJ over all
As per years of my life: 9th grade over all
As per TV now: The Office over all
As per Milk: 2 percent
As per cell phones: Calls over text. Boo text
As per friends: Real life over myspace. Boo myspace.
As per restaurants: La Frontera (106th and State) over all
As per meters: Onetouch Ultrasmart over Onetouch over Stupid piece of hud auto-teststrip crap.
As per Cereal: Malt-o-meal over everything else.
As per calculators: ti-86 over ti-89
As per standardized tests: ACT over SAT
As per pencils: Number 2- o.9 lead.
As per video editing: Adobe Premier over everybody.
As per Photo editing: Adobe Photoshop followed closely by paint over all.
As per gas: the cheapest. None of this supreme unleaded for me
As per proposition 1: Boo
As per socks: yes, medium length. Big enough to hold fruitsnacks in. Not huge, but definitely no ankle.
As per gyms: 24 hour fitness over golds
As per monitor resolution: 1280 X 1024 over all
As per Soda: Water over all. Mmmm, water.

Wow, you'd think I'd get tired of that by now. I've been going for a long time. That's taken a very long while to think of all those. I know there are alot more. Every day we're faced with hundreds of choices like that. We've got to choose between stuff. I'll try to keep looking for more. In the meantime, I want a junior bacon cheeseburger with some water please.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

9 out of 10 dentists agree

11:41: "Why are things the way they are? Why, because if they were any other way, we would be asking ourselves why they are the way that they are, totally ignorant of the fact that things aren't the way that they are in the world where they're not different."

So, sorry bout all the disjointedness going around this place. I really haven't been able to sit down and write a long one in a while. I could make an analogy here that kyle would absolutely love, but since he never reads this I shall refrain. Maybe when I'm a little healthier the posts will come out a little sturdier.

I sure hope nobody got that.

Anywhom, the winds of change are sure blowing. Sorta like soccer blows, cept a little more towards me.

The job hunt is still going strong. The sad fact is I've only applied at one place. Still looking though. I'll keep you posted. If anybody wants to pay me to run, or play warcraft, give me a call.

Well, I could write a really long post, then change it to a really short post, but I don't think I'll do that. *cough*

I'm not gonna lie to you, I sorta miss Nick trying to trick me into getting to work on a project or something.

Hey guys, look at me, I'm nick.

"Get to work. Rarrr."

Alright, I guess that's good for now. Something real is coming soon. Yeah. Something good.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Glasses

Here's the trouble. Here we are, right now, and we can only think from where we are now. We can think back to the past, and forward to the future, but we can only think from here. We cant step back to 5 years ago and think forward to the future. Nope, we're stuck thinking from this frame of reference.

So, let's say that hypothetically I needed to make a choice about what to do next saturday. Here I am, tired, my feet hurt, and I don't want to go outside ever again. I know that tomorrow that'll change, but I can't think from tomorrow, I'm thinking from right now.

So I'm wearing today's glasses. Some days they're happy go lucky glasses, and other days they're not. That's trouble. Cause we make decisions that have an impact for a very long period of time, based on how we feel today. Today's glasses could mess me up, I tell you what.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Summertime

I don't know about this whole summer business. It's a whole lot less structured than the rest of the year. I really like structure. I'm terribly terribly hungry.

There's a post in here, but it's pretty late. I could write, or I could stay quiet. It looks like for now I'm keeping quiet. Maybe something good will come in the future. Something from the golden age. It's been a while since I've written anything good. Tomorrow ought to be good. I got my license today. Too bad I can't use it. Alrighty, I'm out of here, g'night.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Quickstrike

It's coming.

So, this one's going to be quick, it's 12:50, and I gotta go running in 6 hours and 10 minutes. I haven't been seriously running for 8 days now, and that's really been lame. I feel like it's been weeks, and like I'm getting all weak and atrophy and whatever. It's not even good, but tomorrow ought to be great. I'm going to go out there and do good. I bailed out running monday morning because I felt sick,but it was really because of my throat. Since I've been home from PLC, my throat has been hurting like mad. It's not like the strep throat sort of hurting, this is more mechanical. It's really hard to explain, because it's not a sharp pain, but swallowing really hurts. I hate swallowing, so I'm all dehydrated these days, and not very hungry.

Oh well, it'll heal. My working theory is that I burnt it to oblivion on the raging hot chocolate of death that they gave us up at PLC. It was raining and hailing and terribly cold, so they were always serving up some grade A hot chocolate from the mess hall. That was great, and after the first day your whole mouth was burnt, so you didn't mind how hot it was. Well, apparently your throat minds the week after. It's bad news, but it might get better soon. I sure hope so, it hurts.

Yay, my brother is back from New Jersey! Hooray. He's a stallion, and it's great to have him back. I'll see if I can get some pictures up soon. If everything works out, he's gonna come play frisbee friday, so it'll be pimp. Tip top.

I really do need a job. I spent a ton of time today playing warcraft, it was bad news. I spent more time today playing than I have in ages. Goodbye productivity.

Oh snap! is tomorrow flag day?! That means I have to put up flags. Bad news! Terrible news in fact. Because everybody that's usually in charge is out of town. My dad was supposed to be in charge, but I guarantee he forgot. It's 1 in the morning, I can't call everybody to remind them now. Pops is asleep. I'll have to wake him up at 6, get my flags done, then go run. Dangit, that bites. poop.

Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do. We signed up for it I guess.

So, what else? I'm using the Windows Vista Beta. Despite Nick's scathing review without ever having used the product, I really do like it. It definitely runs slower on my machine, but that's just because it's higher end. Graphically it's pretty sweet, and it's got some cool functionalities that I like. It's got a few quirks that are obnoxious, but you can turn all of those off. Overall I've been impressed with the quality. The general flashiness of it reminds you a little of a mac, but that's basically the only similiarity. You can do the whole desktop gadgets *cough widgets cough* thing, but I just turned those off. I like it, I haven't gotten down to doing too much business with it, but what I've done so far is nice. So hey, give me a free operating system for a year, and I'll take it.

Frisbee on friday. Anyone within earshot is invited. It's going to be amazing. Hopefully I'll get some pictures and throw them up. I need a camera. I'm inheriting a nice digital video camera in a month or so, but I still want a regular one. It's gonna be pimp though, good times.

The whole, frisbee empire plan is still proceeding great. We're going to have alot of fun. My frisbees should arrive next week or something. I'm gonna start planning out lessons or something. We're going to get a ton of people trained to be elite frisbee ninjas, so everybody will have a chance to enjoy the greatness. When we start next year, we're not going to be looking for people with skills already. I've found that very few people really start out with frisbee skills. Some do, but that's rare. It's usually just a bunch of athletic skill that can carry over to frisbee. I learned all the stuff I know from the cool DVD's that they include with the frisbees. I have no idea how anyone learned to forehand without them.

That's what I'm here for though. To take a bunch of country bumpkins that want to play frisbee, and teach them to forehand. Then we'll have a bunch of ninjas to play frisbee with every friday night. And, ya know, if a tournament rolls around, we can hop in and kick some butt. Or, if some other schools have clubs, we can have a little bit of fun there too. Either way, it's going to be good. It's going to be a good organization, if everything goes according to plan.

As a whole, life is pretty good. Once I start running, life is going to be even better. Once friday rolls along and I get to play frisbee again, life is going to be nearly perfect. See, I'm an easy guy to please. Everybody these days thinks they need a girlfriend. They write songs about girls, they write long posts about love, they increase their baking skills to woo the ladies. Ya know, if a lady happens to fall into my life, whoohoo. But really, give me 13 other people who know how to throw a frisbee, a good field, and a calm summer evening, and I'll be happy. I don't need the drama, I don't need somebody to tell me that I'm a studmuffin. I just need that filling power of gyroscopic intertia to keep me going.

And now it's time for me to write my obligatory post about love. Everybody's doing it.

What is love? Love is second to frisbee.

Dang straight, g'night all. Remember to put your flags up. And come to frisbee on Friday. And find me a job. Score.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Up yours microsoft

Tabbed browsing. That's real original. Pansies.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Returned

I am returned. Let the insanity end.

I leave for 4 days, and I come back to madness. Jason Liu started a blog, we got rid of our big stick pile in the back yard, Nathan is engaged, and Microsoft is letting people download the vista beta. It's insanity, truly it is.

However, all that stuff is good news really, so I'm happy about it. The camp was really really awesome. It was not happy sunshine all the time though. For some of it I was just irritated, but I still learned a ton, and that's what it was about. I learned alot of really cool stuff that I'm going to apply. It was like a leadership training deal, and I really picked up alot of useful stuff. It's going to be good, I'm gonna go places.

But really, I don't wanna go too far into what happened, but here's some of the cool tidbits.

"Through adversity to the stars" -told by Al Cannaday

"Go big or go home." -told by Nate Burgess

"Who do you follow, and why?" -man in the orange jacket with the dog

"Bad habits are easy to form, hard to live with. Good habits are hard to form, and easy to live with." -Earl the Ax

"If you've never been frog kissin', then you don't know what you're missin'."

It really was a good experience. We had alot of fun, and learned alot. We also had alot of rain. It was dangerous business, we had hail up the wazoo, and that's a terrible place for hail.

Part of the deal was that we had to write a "flight plan," or 5 big goals you can accomplish in the next 3 to 6 months or so. I'm not very good at setting goals, but I definitely went for this one. Here goes.

1. Finish the personal management, swimming, and family life merit badges in the next 3 months.

2. Go to every cross country practice I can this summer.

3. Update my blog once a week for the next 3 months.

4. Go home teaching greater than or equal to 80 perfecnt for the next 6 months.

5. Get my eagle project done by the end of summer.

I can totally do it, I've just got to work hard. I'm excited for the future. I really wanna get my eagle taken care of. I've waited long enough, it's time to just buckle down and get it done. After all, I can drive once that's taken care of.

In other news, I have a really mean neckbeard. I haven't shaved for a long time, and it's just getting awesome. It's the best neckbeard I've ever had. For reals, it's mean looking. I love it so.

Frisbee is coming along great. I'm going to start working on project empire this next week, good things are on the horizon, you will see.

What to talk about? this is going to be different from my normal style, but tonight we talk about net neutrality.

~

The internet is big, we all know it. It is basically a giant network, where people from wherever can access data that is hosted wherever else. We're all connected. The problem that the country is now facing is the way in which we are connected.

Some of you might have been keeping up with the troubles going on in the recent weeks, but for those who haven't, here's the lowdown. Big communication companies are lobbying the legislature to pass a bill that will let them have a lot tighter rein on the internet. You think to yourself, "But that's impossible! The internet isn't some single object that can be held, it's the conglomerate of all the data hosted by everyone everywhere, it's giant, it's distributed, no one can control it!" This in a way is very true, you can't really stop up. The problem though, is that these big communcation companies control the pipes that we get our data through, and they're tired of being the nice guys.

Basically, the lines that our data travels through are owned by somebody. Let's just say that Bell owns this big ugly line that goes from Utah to Vermont. I get online one day and say "Hey, I want to get a file from gamespy. I go to the site, find the file, and go to download it, for free. My computer sends a request through the big line to the server in vermont to send that file over. The server in vermont then sends the data through this big ugly line to my computer.

This takes up something called bandwidth, it's sorta like the physical resources that data takes as it gets sent across lines. You can only throw so much current through a wire before it won't take any more. It's the same idea with data, since it's all ones and zeros.

So, Bell was previously just letting me do that just fine and dandy. Now, they want to start controlling their lines a little better. They're taking a big hit when I get a huge video file from vermont, that's alot of band width. It takes alot of resources. Basically, what they're trying to do is make it so if I want that video file fast, I'm going to have to pay.

If their crazy plan works, they can start tolling their lines. People who pay will get more bandwidth, will be able to download faster. People unwilling to pay will have to wait in long lines, and have very restricted bandwidth. This sucks if you're trying to get that big video file. Eventually, things could get even more out of hand. Say I want to check that blog from the phillipines. I gotta get data from over there. The big company in the Philipines payed the money to the big communications company, so they've got all sorts of bandwidth, people can come and visit their site as they please, they've got all they need. But, this poor blogger doesn't have money to buy bandwidth, so getting to his site takes forever, if it's even possible. Do you see the problem here?

It would take away the great equality of the internet. Here, I can say whatever I want and nobody can stop me. Bill Gates can't do anything more than me. He can say what he wants. But, in this new, scary world that might happen, Bill Gates could say what he wants, and I couldn't. Because I couldn't pay the price, nobody would see this. Bandwidth, curse you.

So that's what's happening. It could mean the end of the internet as we know it. But really, it won't. It's being voted on sometime soon, very soon in fact. I'll try to find more information. I was going to write my solution to the whole problem, but I've lost the desire to write, so I'll do some more tomorrow or something. Yay for getting tired all the sudden.

So, moral of the story is, there's big powers at play all around you. The important thing is to keep doing your best, and things will work out. Alrighty folks, g'night.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

troubador

There's a post inside, but there's no time. Suffice it to say it would be very uncharacteristic, and I'd want to erase it by morning. I'm going to be gone till saturday afternoon, so the date project has been postponed till next week. If someone would be kind enough to tell Autumn, that'd be awesome, as I haven't got in touch with her yet.

So really guys, I'm going to bed. I'll be back saturday. Have a good one everybody, cya later.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

New name, same great taste

Good evening and welcome to the post. It's 5:06, and I'm in my pajamas. Haven't showered for 2 days now. I do smell funny, but there's nobody around to complain. Score it.


I do have an excuse for the pajama thing. I've been planning on going running today, I just haven't gotten there yet. Nobody wants to get all prettied up and then go running, you'll sweat all over the place. Therefore, I'm still here, thinking I might go running once this is finished up. I sure hope so.

This week has been good, it's been a grand adventure really. School sorta just rolled over and died, and in it's place came Ultimate Frisbee on the seminary field. I played ultimate tuesday, wednesday, thursday, and friday. Every school day was at least 25% frisbee, it was pretty awesome. It wasn't the best playing I've ever done, but I was having alot of fun. We had a ton of people show up, things are looking good for the empire next year.

Friday night was Brad Wither's final frisbee friday. Last summer we played frisbee every single friday night. Things sorta went on hiatus during the school year, but frisbee friday made a triumphant return once the college boys got out of school. Things have been great this past month or so. Frisbee every friday, without fail. You don't have to worry about what you're going to do friday night, you already know. It's a standing appointment, you've got a date with frisbee.

Well, Brad is going on a mission, he enters the MTC wednesday I believe. That means that last night would be his final frisbee friday. Now, alot of you don't know brad, but in his day he was even more into this whole frisbee bit than I am now. He carried a frisbee everywhere he went, he rallied people to come play, he was all over it. He's the frisbee champion of the world.

So, frisbee friday was set for Friday night, from 7 to 12. It was going to be an event to remember. It turned out super great, everybody showed up to pay their respects. At one point, we had 24 players, so we split into 2 seperate games again. It was some high quality frisbee. We ended up playing from about 7:45 to 12:45 AM. We had breaks of course, but we probably got in a good 4 hours of play time. It was so great. The weather turned out absolutely perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, no wind except for a slight breeze to keep us comfortable.

Halfway through the evening I busted out my trombone, and after Andrew called everyone to attention, we officially retired brad for two years by playing him some taps. It was pretty dramatic.

What are we going to do without brad to rally us all for frisbee friday? I don't know yet, but someone else will rise up. The old guard will remain for a couple more months before they all step out, one by one to go serve. What happens then? A new leader has got to show up. I sure hope it's me.

At least, that's my plan for now.

In other news, my amazing summer job, the great money-maker, the ultimate muscle-builder, the amazing humbler, has fallen through on me. We didn't get the job this year. I really was expecting to get it, and now I'm not sure what's going to happen. I am not sure whether I want to go find another job or not. Things are going to be busy with cross country this year, I don't want to risk that for a stupid job. Then again, money is a nice thing, and I'm not sure that I've got enough saved up to last through the long hard winter that is the school year. We'll have to see. If anybody knows anywhere that is hiring, let me know, I may or may not be interested.

Oh, before you all blow up my mailbox, I was joking with that whole "what a bunch of moochers" thing last time. I think girls are cool. so... don't kill me.

I definitely got the coolest cake ever yesterday. It's second only to the ninja turtle cake my mom made Andrew. But wow, it's got 12 layers, and it's a diabetic coma waiting to happen. Mm mm good.

Cross country workouts start monday morning at 7 O'clock. I'm so excited. It's going to be so great. If anybody is interested, just show up. We're gonna run, and then do some weights. I'm gonna be in such killer shape, you've got no idea. I'll be a raging machine.

Oh snap, I've got a date with Autumn someday soon. I'm supposed to plan something, but really, I got nothing. So I'm working on that. If anybody wants to do that whole group thing, leave a comment, it's gonna be good.

One day I'm going to be able to do a backflip on the trampoline. Right now I can't, and that makes me sad inside. A rather curious gentleman asked me to do a backflip yesterday, and I couldn't do it. I embarassed myself infront of two people I hold dear, Hope, and my random neighbor's friend I met yesterday. This will have to change.

This room definitely has a different writing style than the computer library did. I'm alot more conscious of what's going on on the monitor. Looking back it seems like it used to be some dream stage where I wrote but didn't know I was writing. These days it's forced, hmm.

You know what I admire? A good farmer's tan.

I'm really excited for this summer. I'm excited for everything. I don't know exactly how it's all going to work out, but I'm going to get my eagle soon. I'm really going to follow through with the frisbee empire next year. Mama withers is going to be our faculty sponsor or whatever, it's all lined up, it's going to be great.

Oh man, I can smell somebody's BBQ through the window. That's cruel. Birds have build a huge nest in our barbecue, and so we're a little torn between the prospect of killing birds, or not having any barbecue this whole summer. I mean really, who just builds a nest in my barbecue? That's not something you do.

I'm pretty sure there's something very upset that is growing out of my big toe. It's no fun.

I changed the title of the blog, I was getting tired of the old one. I actually made the old one when I was pretty angry at the world one day, so it didn't really portray what I wanted. I changed it, and now it doesn't make too much sense, except that I want to run 1000 miles in CC this year. The goal the team is giving us all is 750, but I've got to beat that. Just because.

Speaking of which, I'm out to go running. It's going to be good, I'm excited. it's nice weather out there. You should all go running too, and join the cross country team. Yeah, go for it.

So yeah, I'm out of here. Drop me a comment about that date thing if anybody is interested, it's going to be fun. Who wouldn't want to go on a date with me and autumn? Honestly.