Sunday, September 17, 2006

Suddenly

Whoa. Time moves quickly. This week rushed by like crazy. I can't believe it's been so long since I posted here. I've been really occupied with getting the Alliance rolling that this corner of the world has been neglected. For that I am sorry. Yea verily, I am here tonight to reconcile. Indeed, here comes the post.

School has been pretty good, but still a little different. It was really easy to drop right into the groove this year though. Nothing too strange or new for us, just hop right in and run with it. We all know where to go, how to get there. It's an easy transition, go go go. Classes are still harder than last year, but that's to be expected and celebrated.

This year offers us all a good opportunity. The ceiling has been raised. Last year everybody got an A. You could do the best you could, and there was the ceiling. You reach it, good for you. But you couldn't really get too much higher. We were all really expected to be there at the barrier seperating us from the heavens. It was a nice place to be.

But this year, the barrier has been removed, and all the sudden we've got air space up the wazoo. Now an A is further up, harder to get to. We can do the best we can, and sometimes we won't even make the ceiling. There are more places we can go, but it's harder to get to the top.

We can take this two ways. One way is super great, we've got more potential. If I want to be a superstar, I can do it. Last year, everyone was a super star. That was cool and all, but what if I want to be like, the superstar? In a situation where everyone gets an A, what's the point? If it's easy, it doesn't mean anything. It's really supply and demand here. In this new Junior state, the supply of victory is way down, and the demand is up. So, you can be happy about this, or sad. Less people will dominate this year. Maybe that's a good thing.

Cross Country has been going well, we're having fun. I seem to have hit the plateu, it's hard to improve right now. I haven't had a PR in a long time. The team is doing well though, and it's fun to be with them. We only have two more official meets, three if we make it to state. It's looking alot harder to get there though. We're in a super super hard region right now. We're sure that we can beat Hillcrest, but we'd have to edge out one more school in order to get to state. From the looks of things, our best shot now is to beat brighton. We haven't met them in a tri meet yet, we're racing them this wednesday. It'll be intense, we'll have to see what happens.

It's weird, it feels like our team this year is a ton better than it was last year. That's probably not true though, I'm just doing alot better than I was last year. Last year we had Clements and Whiting and Money rounding out the top. Now we've got Kirt and Noakes and Selck and myself. We're very senior shy, junior heavy. So really, I don't know if we're going to make it to state or not. It's a toss up. I'd like to go, but all the same I'd like to be done with meets. I love running with the team, and I just love hanging out with them and all, but I don't like meets as much. That's why summer is so good. It's constant workouts, super hard. I sweat like mad every day. In the end you get to go home feeling great about how hard you worked. There are never meets in the summer, you're just happy to run for the sake of making yourself better. You don't have to go and get 139th to know that you're heart is strong as an ox. You're just as fast as you want to be.

So, CC. Next year we dominate, going to state for sure. This year it's not a sure thing. I bet we could do it if we really really worked at it. Truthfully, we can all improve a ton. We've all got it in us. If we go out there and run our hardest we can make it. I know I've got a ton of room before I hit that glass ceiling. Selck has got it too. Santy has been improving a ton. Thadeus is an animal, and really ought to be the fastest kid on the team. It makes me sad that he's not, I feel bad for the stomach thing. That'd be super super hard.

Moral of the story is, we can make it. But if we don't, I'm alright with it. I know that coach will be a little dissappointed, but he knows the situation. He'll be alright. We'll be back next year, stronger than ever. With seniors. w00t.

On to my love life:

Frisbee club starts next week, w00tah. We've got our posters all made up. I've got to make up some forms tomorrow for people to fill out, but that won't be too difficult. We really need somebody to sit at the table for second lunch on A-days. We've got nobody, and it's trouble. It's not going to be too hard, you've just got to sit there and make sure nobody steals our stack of papers and throws them at wilbur. So, still searching for that.

Aside from that, it's looking good. I found out today that Skyline has a pretty intense team. We're definitely going to be playing Murray in the near future. We'll play skyline someday when things have settled down a bit.

I'm really excited for this. It's going to be hard because I never have time after school, but that's alright, we'll make it work. We're going to be teaching the A-team the stack really soon, because it's looking like most the teams around here are playing with it. We're a little backwards I guess, we haven't adopted the more rigid style of offense yet. We're still playing every man for themselves. It'll be interesting to see how it works. I think that we've got a good chance against these other teams though. Athletically speaking, we ought to be able to run all over them. We've got the technique, we just need to learn to play as a team and get that stack running.

So, all in all, good things are happening. Life is rolling along. School is getting better. There's something really awesome about getting chemistry right. Our last assignment was insane. We're doing stoichiometry right now, and it ought to be a review. It is, sorta. Like, we know how to do it, but we've never done stuff this intense. One of the questions last time... it was like a cannon. You look at that thing, and you know that if you do it right, you can shoot down that huge warship in the bay. Trouble is, the cannon is sitting here in the valley, and you need it to be at the top of the mountain. You're gonna have to push it.

So, an hour and a half later, you stand on the mountaintop. You load your cannon, and with a deafening crash you release your fiery ammunition and destroy the bad guys.

Yeah, it's like that. You read the question, and you're like "What?" This is insanity. You know it's possible - somehow - but you're not sure exactly how. But, knowing that there is a way to find the answer, you set out to do it. It's backbreaking labor, your head actually hurts from not getting it. You always get it, things are always easy. But no, this stuff taunts you. It's not that you don't get the math. It's not that you can't convert. It's that you have no idea how you're supposed to do it.

But you push anyways, and you get it. You remember the exact moment it finally clicked. You unlock the magic, and bam, sunlight floods in. You rush to convert to moles then back to grams and then subtract to find out how much mass must have come from oxygen. Hurry and write the formula so you can balance it and then convert back. It's an insane process, and your ti-86 is quivering from the intense number crunching it just experienced. After all is said and done, you conquered it.

And then in class the next morning, you're correcting. And you know that you've got it right. And Hansen is up there, oh, he's up there. And we're going over it on the board. And he starts reading out the answer, and inside, you're just screaming.

"C-Two-H-Two- OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooo!"

That's right. You figured it out. It's party time.

That's why chemistry is fun. Cause of stuff like that.

And now, for a little fiction. The characters and happenings in this fiction are entirely fictional. Any correlation you make to people or objects in the real world are entirely your own creation. I had nothing to do with it.

It was a cloudy day, and the wind wasn't cooperating. He walked inside, after failing in his 4th attempt to summon pegasus to rescue him from school. He knew that this whole pegasus business was a sham anyways, but it was fun to see the way the sophomores looked at him when he started muttering in Spanish. He didn't know what he was saying, but that guy named juan wouldn't stop winking at him. If he couldn't summon pegasus, he might as well summon some latin friends right?

-Authors note. What the crap? Pegasus? What is this? I don't even know where that came from. It's late. anyways, what follows is based on an idea I had about a week ago. In the following week I have stopped disliking my English teacher so much. I'm alright with him now. So, don't think I hate the guy cause I don't. This is just for fun, don't have a heart attack. And remember, it's entirely coincidental if you happen to see a parallel to my life in here. Cough. On with the story!-

All random gift shops aside, Claudius Hatcher walked into his English class. It was just as he had left it two days earlier. Same awkward configuration of desks, same inferior-style computing devices on the far table. He took his seat, greeted his classmates, and attempted to run off. Unfortunately, the teacher noticed him trying to steal the chair, and made him take it back and sit down. Sigh, today wasn't his day.

Flash forward 35 minutes, and our protagonist finds himself dozing off. It'd been happening more and more since the carbonated fry had appeared to him in his dreams. It had told him about the secret ring that would grant him +13 agility. He needed agility bad. He had sought the ring, but his attempts had been futile. All he ended up with was a yellow lemon shaped rock. Curses.

So Claudius is falling asleep. When all the sudden, a giant alligator wielding a machine gun burst through the door.

The class was shocked. I mean really, how often do giant alligators wielding machine guns burst through the door? That just doesn't happen anywhere but Mississippi. Pencils were dropped, screams were issued. And he was about to fall asleep too. Sigh.

So he shakes himself off, and timidly raises his hand. The teacher calls on him, and he says. "Mr Jarward, a giant alligator wielding a machine gun just burst through the door."

Mr. Jarwood, a rastafarian sort of guy looked at our student, and then took notice of the giant alligator wielding a machine gun for the first time. He staggered back a few paces, and said, "Gee, I wish the author would have made me German instead of Rastafarian."

Collectively, the class uttered a bewildered and confused "What the crap?"

"All point distribution aside, it appears that a giant bird has just burst through the door children, please stay calm." Exclaimed the identity-challenged teacher.

"Bird? That's an alligator mr. Jarward." Said the one kid that doesn't quite smell right. It's not a bad smell. Just not right.

"No hernando, it's obviously a bird. Do you see that twig clenched between its big claw and little claw? That type of twig is only found in birds' nests. That means that it came from a birds' nest. Therefore, it's a bird. Not a giant alligator wielding a machine gun." Said Jarward.

Claudius raised his hand again.

"Yes, Claudius?" asked Jarward.

Taking a breath, Claudius said, "Well Jarward, that can't be a bird, because it's got scales and scary teeth and is definitely lacking wings. The whole thing is green and scary. There are no feathers to speak of. I just took its internal temperature, and it's way lower than a birds'. It can't be a bird."

Jarward sighed. "There's a twig Claudius. It came from a birds' nest. That means its a bird. Birds come from birds' nests. It's not that difficult a concept...."

"But sir, it's wielding a machine gun. Birds don't wield machine guns. Alligators wielding machine guns are the only type of animals that wield machine guns. This is definitely a giant alligator wielding a machine gun." Claudius said with a slight british accent.

"Where did it come from Claudius?" Inquired Jarward with a bit of teeth.

"Teeth? That was uncalled for man. It came from a birds' nest." Claud, the recently renamed rapper said.

"That's right, and what comes from birds' nests? Birds. That's right. It's a bird. Any other answer is wrong." Jarward spoke like a CD-R.

"Ok, wait, it's an alligator. You can see that it's an alligator." Claudius enunciated.

"No Claudius, it's a bird. You are wrong."

"Bah! It's got a machine g-"

"It's a bird. It came from a birds' nest."

"No! It's green and is currently eating that smelly kid! Birds don't ea-"

"It came from a birds nest, it's a bird. Give it up Claudius."

"It smells like an alligator! It looks like an allig-"

"You're so sophomoric. Obviously it's a bird, and you're just confused and intimidated by how hard you think my class is."

"No! It's an alligator, and I don't think your class is hard! I'm not intimidated by anything but that giant alligator wielding a friggin machin-"

"Stop shouting. It's a bird, and birds don't eat johnny. Johnny is clearly investigating the innards of the birds mouth, that's all."

"He's gurgling for help! You can hear him shriek, he's pumping his remaining leg like a ma-"

"Sometimes birds excite people like that. Please take your seat. Our bird that came from a birds' nest is clearly trying to express itself. Let's analyze what rhetorical strategies it is using."

"It's an Alligator and it's going to eat me!"

"You are incorrect. It's a bird."

"No, it's an alligator wielding a machine gun!"

"It came from a birds nest. Therefore it's a bird."

And then at this point, the alligator shot them all because they were stupid.

~end fiction~

So, what's the moral of the story? It's an alligator, get over it.

Because after all, I don't count beans.

I hunt alligators.

6 comments:

Courtney said...

haha! i love your story! it's amazing, and it makes me think of rockwell's class. :D haha. that was good fun...oh yeah, i should finish that thesis paragraph..huh...

Jaron Frost said...

Hahaha! That's hilarious! I have a feeling Harward is going to be our MJ this year ;)

Courtney said...

worse than mj.

Combat Kyle said...

You lost me at the twig...

Jason said...

Lol. Wow.

I'm definetely not "reaching for the heavens" this year... I'm not even your competetion anymore.

Anonymous said...

Excellent. I like it.

I don't know... I think Rockwell is still our MJ, skippy. Oh, darn.

Yeah, the competition is tough, it means a lot less people will have 4.0s by the end of the year. In some ways, that's a good thing, but in most ways, it's not. Well, we'll see what happens.

--Nick