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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Up yours microsoft

Tabbed browsing. That's real original. Pansies.

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.

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.

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.

My New Duds

Does anyone know what that even means? I mean, the duds thing. I don't even know. But it sounds cool, and I think it might relate.

I just moved my computer into my room, out of the computer library. See, the library was established about a year and a half ago as a safe haven for all of our computer stuff. I moved my computer in there, Andrew moved his in there, it was good times.

Well, Michael is coming back from serving a mission in New Jersey, and he needs a place to sleep. Therefore, we've got to vacate that computer library that was originally his room, and change it back into a room as opposed to a library.

This is no easy task, I'm not too excited about it. I made the first step today, and moved my computer in here. It's pretty nice. I got a new monitor for my birthday, because my other one blew up. I had been using some old school deal that only went up to 1024 X 768 resolution. That was terribly low, now I've got this baby cranking at 1280 X 1024. It's good times.

So here I am, broadcasting from my room. It's sorta nice in here, the temperature is a little nicer. The sun isn't blaring into my face like it usually is, and the company is better. Now I'm in the room with Andrew, instead of in the room with a desk.

So, a post? Nah, I don't think so. I do have some stuff to write about, but I'm not really feeling like it right now. The important thing is, mileage count starts tomorrow. I'm gonna explain all of that madness tomorrow when I write, but I'm excited for it. I'm gonna hit 1000.

I told doc that I'm not taking jazz band next year. Yeah, it went about as everybody had expected. "...that's sad news...." and that was it. But in that sentence, I felt like I had just kicked a little puppy. Awwww. Sorry Doc.

Played 3 step tonight, sucked it up big time. It was still good times, but it wasn't as great as usual. Lots of our guys were at graduation stuff or whatever, so we were short handed. Oh well, they kicked our butts, and they deserved the win. Hats off to ya mountainview.

The last week of school is good times, you play frisbee every day. This is a good thing.

Very tired. Something good tomorrow yeah? Maybe. Oh yeah, I'm 16. Happy birthday to me yesterday. Not too much is going to change though. I don't get my license for an undetermined amount of time. Dates ought to be fun though. Now i've got an excuse to go see Xmen III and pay full price times two. Bunch of moochers anyways, can't pay for your own movie, can't open your own doors. I don't even know why we try.

Nah, but in all seriousness, it ought to be good. It's been good times. two days of school left, tomorrow is yearbook day, and friday is refund. Friday is also Brad's farewell frisbee friday. It's going to be intense, I might even cry a little.

Yup, it's go time.

Christopher Thatcher has entered text.

The Greatest

The Pictures of the Week

Yeah, that's me and kyle, with articially pee'd pants. We had to do that for the school newspaper last year. Good times at Ike, good times.

A big part of my childhood, the big van, as viewed from the computer library window. It's a good old van, but immobile for the past several years. It got towed away a few weeks ago, I'll never see it again. It served its country well. Here's to you, econoline.

And, that's a bunch of pictures of me. Picasa made that for me, it's a nifty little program. Endorsed by google, part of the google pack. My advice? Get the google pack, it'll make your life much easier.

The Quote of the Week
"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift."
-Steve Prefontaine

Alrighty, howdy folks. It's been some time since I've written anything of consequence. There's been much to write about, but not so much time. This blog is going to be a little different from alot of my others. I'm not gonna tell so many stories, I'm gonna tell alot more ideas. So, I don't know if this is gonna work or not, but take it or leave it. I'm not forcing you to read.

But, if you read to the end, I might give you a cookie.

Friday night was something that I'd been waiting for for a long time. Friday night signalled the end of sophie school work. After friday night, nothing was really due. There'd be no homework, no pain. School is simply a bunch of parties now. I was up till 4:00 AM writing an English paper thursday evening, but that was the end. No more. Friday night meant freedom.

Friday night also meant frisbee. It was killer windy, but we were using the 200 gram anti-wind beast, and that negated the effect a ton. Once it got dark, we switched over to my lighty, and that worked pretty well too.

The important thing about Friday night was that it was grade A quality frisbee. It was just good playing. There aren't too many important stories that came out of Friday night. We hardly kept score, we were just out there to play. We had a good turnout, and we all played well. I had some very good plays, and some crap plays. Everybody played well though, it was amazing. It was one of those nights when you remember just how much you love everything about friday night frisbee. You love the people, you love the exercise, you love the frisbee, you love the score, you love your do-rag.

Frisbee, I haven't forgotten it.

So, it's wonder time. I'm gonna try something here. This is a dream of mine, in response to recent events. This is the ultimate spirit showdown.

Aight, so I was gonna write this as a little fiction piece, but that's just not working. So, back to old school style. w00t.

Spirit week has always had potential. In Junior high, it was my favorite week of the year. It was amazing. Every moment of school was competition. It didn't matter what we were doing, we were doing it for the good of the grade. It was alot like the society that 1984 is set in. It was for the grade, not for yourself. You went around and cleaned the lunchroom for your grade, for honor, for the glory. You made a fool of yourself, not to get attention like every other time, but you did it for the grade. You fought, you were willing to do it, all in the name of spirit points.

Then, in high school, that all sorta fell apart. Maybe it's because I never see TVTV, maybe it's because I'm disconnected, but spirit week came and went without me noticing it. Sure, I dressed up, but there was no big build up. There was no constant reminder that I was working for the good of my grade. There was no reason for me to do anything different in my life. There was no opportunity to do something great until Friday afternoon at the assembly.

It was fun to dress up, I had a good time, but I was one of few who did dress up. There was no benefit to dressing up, I just made a fool of myself for attention.

And so here, my friends, is my idea. The idea for the greatest spirit week ever. Is it possible? Probably not. Will it happen? Not unless I suddenly become the dictator of a high school when I'm old and have alot of money. This would be tough, but it'd be the very best.

This time, it's for glory. I'm not sure what spirit week was about this past year. I don't really know what it was all about. But this time, it's about glory.

The whole month has been building up to this week. There was a kickoff assembly, and there was planning, lots of planning. The Seniors even went so far as to have auditions to find out who would be their champions. They're in it to win, but it's too early to hand over the cup just yet.

See, you can't forget that it's spirit week this time. Everyone that is dressed up gets a point. The whole week is full of opportunities to get points for your grade. There are 5 great opportunities to dress up. No pajama day, because pajama day sucks. Nobody knows what the 5 days will be exactly, but there's no hawaiian day either.

At lunch, there's always a competition going on. This is where the grassroots occurs. This is where you choose a random audience member from each grade to come compete. You play twister, you pull them up on stage and ask "What will you do for 10 spirit points?". You let them decide what they're going to do with the ice cream, but whatever they do, it better be worth 10 spirit points. If it's not, well, they don't get the points. You test them to see who's the bravest, who can limbo the lowest, and who can dance the best. This is the place for grassroots. This is where you entertain the masses with trivial little games.

Points are deducted for however many tardies your grade has this week. Ultimately, everything counts this week. The economy is weighed in a manner that is fair to all. I'm not sure how that's gonna work yet, but that'll get worked out later.

So, you know that you've got opportunities to score points always. Ultimately, the more people in your grade that participate, the more points you get throughout the week. This leaves it up to you, the people that aren't drones, to convince them to dress up. How are you going to do it? That's just one of the challenges of Spirit Week.

But really, the capstone to spirit week is always the spirit bowl. But, instead of a bunch of random competitions that somebody thought up in a dark basement, this year we know what's coming.

It revolves around 4 main events, events that are too grand to be done in the auditorium, too grand even to be done on the field. The events are the DDR dance off, the Halo showdown, another various thing I haven't nailed down yet, and the greatest ever, the Taylorsville High School Text Adventure.

See, instead of random events that you may or may not win at, this time, you know what's coming, and you train accordingly. You know that in the DDR dance off of death, you're going to have to dance better than the seniors. You know that there's going to be a 5 song tournament, you know what 2 of the songs will be, and the other 3 are chosen by the competitors. Since you're one of the competitors, I suppose you know what 3 of them are. You want to choose something you're good at, but something the others won't be able to beat you at. You know that they're going to do the same.

You know the DDR dance off is coming, and you plan accordingly. You can elect 2 or 3 champions to compete in this event, with one coming off as the true champion for your grade. You pick the most asian, the fastest, the kid with the lightning feet and the soulful beat. (Yeah, that rhymes.) The seniors have a dance off the week before to find out who their champion is going to be. You're not that well prepared, but you elect your best, your finest, to represent the peoples.

But, how do you keep people entertained through the entire competition? Nobody wants to sit and watch as 9 champions get narrowed down to 3, and then those three have to dance through 5 more songs to find out who the grand champion is. That's boring. So what do you do?

You take a leaf out of NBC's coverage of the olympics. You recruit the finest from TVTV, and if that doesn't work, you recruit me, and you do a tape delay. You record some of it a little earlier, and then you make a story out of it. You do biographies of the champions, you do interviews with the champions once they're done. You show the video at the bowl, people cheer, they get pumped.

And then you wheel out the last three, to do the final dance off. You've already done the first 4 songs. You've shown the highlights. You've shown everybody that will watch the scores so far. You've talked about the prospects. You've shown them exactly how many points the juniors need to win it, how many points the Seniors need to hold on to in order to keep the victory. Everybody knows it. And then, you wheel them out, and you watch them dance it out live. On live television, you interview the champion. You make it work. It's more of a technical marvel than it is a DDR marvel. It's harder to make the coverage work than the actual competition work, but it's worth it. People get excited.

The Halo works in a similar fashion. The other event, which I'm not sure about, is the same idea.
Then, we get to my favorite. The Taylorsville High School Text adventure. This requries a crazy amount of support from the TVTV folks, but it'll be the best.

You have one champion from each grade, and really, they're sent on a crazy treasure hunt through the whole school, armed with nothing but a cell phone.

It's a text adventure, you're getting sent clues with texts.

Imagine, you're alone in the halls. You have no idea where the other two are, but you're just following the directions that keep making your phone vibrate in your hand. They told you to go to room I-204, so you did it. They told you to walk to the computer, and type in "walnuts" when it asked for a password, so you did. That gave you another clue, you followed it. When you get where it sent you, you texted back to the magical man in the sky, and he told you to run to the commons, and ask the giant statue what to do. Through some magic, he sent you on a hunt, to find something. To go somewhere. It's a challenge, a treasure hunt. There's mystery, there's surprises. But ultimately, it's just you, your cell phone, your wits, and, if you've got verizon, the rest of the network.

You've been following the clues for 15 minutes now. Maybe more, maybe less, you're not sure. Things are getting intense. You've already been in places in the school that you had no idea existed. You were directed to the secret key that let you into the secret closet in MJ's room, there you found the Helmet of Truth. They told you that you'd need this in your final battle, and you trust them. Why not? They keep giving you clues.

They make you take a picture of the lunch lady, after you've found her in her secret lair. They've made you figure out logic puzzle after logic puzzle. They've asked you to find mr. Olsen's car in the parking lot.

The whole way, the scary man with the camera is following you. It's like some crazy reality show, everything you do is taped. It's a little too difficult to play this one live, just with how far the camera has to go. And so, it's taped, and then edited at lightning speed. You might even have to compete the day before, nobody knows. It's all for the audience though.

It's the great finale. You don't know how the others have done, you only find out once they roll the video. It's like NBC, everybody loves the olympics.

Of course, these are only the 4 big events, the big crowd pleasers. People train for these forever. You get your DDR champions honed down to DDR legends. You know what' s coming, so you can prepare. It's like a track meet. The only reason anybody goes to a track meet to see slow people run is because they're related to them. The reason people go to track meets, aside from family obligations, is to see the real legends run. The people who are entertaining, fun to watch. Nobody wants to see me get up there and stumble through DDR. I want to see Azn pope robert get up there and fly. This way, i can do that, and my grade can still be amazing.

Of course, you can't just tape the whole spirit bowl, that's lame. There are live events on stage. The sumo wrestling, the American Gladiator combat, the trivia challenge. There's all sorts of stuff. But really, it's all about the olympic coverage.

That's what I want. I want something to plan for. There could be more events. I'd love to see a big Ultimate Frisbee match, divided by grade. I'd love to see a crazy triathlon through the school, where you've got to swim, climb, run, crawl, dodge, dance, then take a test. I'd love to plan it, and I'd love to see it taped, then edited, and covered like the olympics.

I want spirit week to be important again. i want to dress up, and I want to see everybody else dressed up. I want the opportunity to be great. That's why frisbee is amazing. It's because every single play in Ultimate, you've got the opportunity to do something great. That's the only difference between life and Ultimate. In life, the opportunity to do something truly great only comes once every long while. In Ultimate, it's every single play. Every play you have the chance to make that great layout D. You've got the chance to dive for the catch, to do great cover, to make that great pass. That's what Spirit week needs to be. It needs to be about unity, not about random mystery events. Support your team, support your grade, support your champions. It goes down to grassroots, as well as to the champions.

Everybody has to be important. Everybody has to dress up, everybody has to get to class. When that's over with, everybody has to help win something at the assembly.

I want to see the text adventure, I want to see the race. I want to play frisbee.

I want spirit.

I got spirit, do you got spirit?

I didn't think so.

Get some, then video tape it.

So, I'm not sure if this made any sense. I guess i gotta publish this now. i had more to say. More will come tomorrow. But for now, that's the greatest Spirit Week ever. G'night all.

Champion

I'm a champion. It's 3:01 AM, and I just finished my English essay. It's a fun essay, most of it is built around a musical chairs analogy. Yeah, that's right.

I finished, I did it, I'm a champion. I pulled it off. The last real assignment of Sophomore year. Fear me. Not only that, but I just smashed a spider most of the way. I'm pretty sure I didn't kill it though. But c'mon, how useful is a 6 legged spider anyways? That's right, not very.

So, I'm very happy. I pulled it off. w00tah.

My name's Chris, I win
My name's English, I'm teh sucks.
My essay roxxorz.

G'night all.

Jay Murda

So, I really want to just bust out and write. But nah, no time, it's 12:36, and I'm not done with my homework yet. I'm close though, so this is good.

So, expect something good. Not tomorrow, cause I've got alot of work. Probably not Friday, cause I've got alot of frisbee to play. The forecast says it's going to be windy, and that makes me cry on the inside. However, we will fight through it, cause we're troopers. We're not about to let the forces of nature keep us from Frisbee Friday.

Tomorrow I write an English paper, the last real assignment of Sophomore year. Mmm mmm good. Tonight, I prepared a report on Jay Murda. Who's Jay Murda?

I'm Jay Murda.

Shorted

Ya know what? I'm happy.

Nick keeps getting after me cause I'm so optimistic. He's got a point, I am optimistic.

And, coincidentally enough, I feel good about that. I'm happy with the world as it is. Sure, there are problems, but things are going to be alright. Things are going to keep getting better. By the same token, things are going to keep getting worse as well, but there'll be a division. Things will be the best they've ever been, and the worst they've ever been.

You can take this two ways. It really all depends on what side you want to be on. You can be the guy with cancer who dies because somebody shot the ozone down, or you can be the guy that is saved by the most amazing medical science anyone has ever seen. Do you know what they can do? I was talking to a cancer doctor the other day, and it's amazing. Mind boggling, and tumor blowing.

But in the end, things are going to be good. Things are good. I really really believe that things are going to be great. I know they are. The future, as I've said so many times before, looks bright.

This is Christopher Thatcher, signing out for the night, but not before telling you all to keep up the good work. Keep holding on, things are getting better every day. Sure, bad stuff will happen, but it's important that stuff like that does happen. It gives us opportunities to learn and grow and appreciate the good times. I don't know why some bad things happen, I don't know why things have got to be rough. But, from somewhere, I know that things are going to turn out ok. Things are going to end up great. There's no reason to doubt that, it's just a matter of timing. So hold on little buddies, and I'll do the same, and things will be good.

Take that you downers. Smile, things are getting better.

Gonna be a long one

The Picture of the Week

Yup, that's me, drooling like a horse. That wasn't staged, that was taken by my brother as I took a nap one day. I had only been asleep for about an hour, and he saw the madness and couldn't resist taking pictures. The little beep from the camera woke me up, so we got a better picture of it, free of obstruction.

Dang straight.

The Quote of the Week

"Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation."
- Kin Hubbard

Ya know, there are just some things that you want to do, but can never really find the time to do. If you really want to do something, you'll make time for it, if it's really important to you. But what about stuff that isn't amazingly important, but stuff you'd still like to do? Unless you're good at using time, it's not gonna happen too often. I'm not good at budgeting time too well. For the last two weeks or so, I've wanted to bust out and play some DDR. It's been a while since I've just jammed out. I've only got one pad, me and my sister used to play alot together, just switching off. That hasn't gone on for a long time, so I just haven't been playing. But, I got the DDR dreamin', so last night at 11, instead of doing the algebra I should have, I tuned up my white-boy DDR skills.

I sucked big time, but I did get my ENTIRE shirt wet. You all know I sweat. I sweat more than anyone I know except my brothers, but last night was something pulchritudinous. It was just coming out. I really don't think that any of you aside from Andrew have ever beheld such sweat coming from me. During hockey season in gym, the Canadian version of Christopher Thatcher got a sweat ring all the way down to his belly button. Last night, the Asian version of Christopher Thatcher transcended the ring, and the shirt became one with the perspiration. It was complete. No fiber was spared. I was waging a war of attrition against the parched weave of my shirt, I was there to liberate the thirsty threads, the thirsty seams. In South America, they refer to Simon Bolivar as "The Liberator". In the DDR realm, they know me by one name only; "The Dominator"

In less dramatic news, I ran a 5:02 at the meet yesterday. It was the region JV meet, which basically means it's a tri meet that doesn't count for anything, but there's six schools there. So, it's like a hexameet. Anyone who made state, and most seniors don't run. This means the competition is less fierce, and it's alot more laid back. So, I got third in the mile, and I'm pretty happy with that. The Jordan Freshman Phenonemon won with a time of about 4:59. Had I had 50 more meters, I would have caught them. But alas, I did not, and I'm really happy with how I did. Sure, I didn't break 5 minutes, but c'mon, 2 seconds off? That's close enough for me! New PR, w00t.

Our 4x400 team did way good too, I was super happy about it. See, the 3200 race is right before the 4x400. Me, I didn't wanna run the 2 mile yesterday, so I didn't. I really should have, cause I could have got third easy, and second with a little effort. Had I been willing to bust it, I might have even had a shot at first. But ya know, I don't mind, cause alternate Thatcher got 1st, and that's just like me getting the victory, except he wears a skyline uniform and runs faster than me.

But anyways, I was totally fresh for the 4x4. I was excited for it. Usually we don't have enough guys, so we end up scraping guys, usually guys that just ran the 3200. Our 4x4 team is usually abysmal, so abysmal in fact, that by the time our 4th guy gets the baton, the other teams are done, or nearly done.

However, we had 4 fresh guys for the 4x4 yesterday. Kirt Heywood led off, he handed to Sievert, he handed to me, and Taylor Laj-y was our anchor. That wasn't the original order the coaches put it in, but we figured that it'd work out best. The only real difference was that I was supposed to anchor, but we decided to switch to taylor down at the line because he's faster.

So, Kirt ran a way good leg, and Sievert ran a way good leg, and I think I ran a dang good leg myself. Laj-y wasn't fresh, so he didn't run as great, but he still did fairly well. I made up some ground on my leg, so I was way happy about it. I love that race, it's so fast, but not so fast that it takes the brain out of it. Distance is all about your brain. Your body comes secondary. In a distance race, you're only running the very fastest that you can for one or two hundred meters. Everything else is something less than that. You've got to think about it, you've got to be able to push yourself fast enough to compete, and stay with the guys in front, but you can't push too fast, or you fall over and die. Idealy, you ought to fall over the finish line, and die right there. Your last breath ought to be about 20 meters from the finish line, and in a perfect world, you'd sprint those last 20 on brain damage fumes.

Of course, that never happens. But, that's the glory of distance. It's 60% mind, 40% body. If your body isn't in shape, you can't do anything. However, somebody that is willing to work harder than me that isn't in quite as good of shape can kick my butt any day. You've just got to pace yourself just right, and be determined.

It hurts out there, and it takes alot of power to tell your body that it doesn't hurt. That's why distance is great. With the short sprint races, it's all about how your body is tuned. There's no brainwork involved. You run forward, moving your legs as far and as fast as they go. Your brain ultimately has to shut off, and your body just gets into that cyclic rythym, and you go. In 100 meters, there's no room to think about race strategy, about how much you hurt, about anything. It's just go. There's no room for mind over matter, it's just matter.

That's why I don't like sprints. That, and the fact that I suck at them. Which brings me back to my original point, the 4x400 is pretty much the coolest race ever. 400 meters is one lap, and you run it as a sprint. It's not a full sprint, but it's dang dang close. I run 100 meters in about 13.2 seconds. I run a 400 in about 57 seconds. That's 14.25 seconds for a 100. So, it's pretty close to just plain out booking it. So, you've got the sprint work. However, it's long enough that your spirit, what's inside, actually counts. This isn't just a mindless dash down a straight line, this is a fierce and furious race in that endless oval they call a track. A kid with liver cancer can run a 100 meter race, and finish it just fine. It's only 13 seconds, 11 or 12 if you're fast. Nothing hurts for 13 seconds. You can hold your breath for 13 seconds. You can get in insane freezing water for 13 seconds. 13 seconds is underneath the threshhold of pain. You can do anything for 13 seconds. So, the 100 is painless.

The 400 is a pain factory if you do it right. In the mile race, you absolutely sprint the last 150 meters or so as fast as you can. You're pushing it, your legs are the loosest they will ever get, your body is literally bulging with adrenaline, you go for it. You've saved up enough for this final push, you sprint in to your reward. In the 400, there is no such feeling. If you save enough for a death sprint at the end, you have run too slow in the beginning. You try your hardest to push and sprint and get out there, but your legs refuse to move any faster. The last 150 meters burn your legs, a sensation distance guys hardly ever feel. It's fast, but it's long in it's own short sort of way.

In the end, the 4x400 combines all the good aspects of track. You're out there running your hardest, with just a hint of spirit pushing you from within. You run fast, your body is getting pushed, not punished like a distance race. You know that it will be over soon. There's never the dreaded, empty stomach feeling of "Great, 6 laps left..." like you get in the 3200. Your brain doesn't even function until you've run 100 meters, and your body doesn't start hurting for another 50. By that time the idea of reaching the halfway point and really pouring it on keeps you occupied, so you can ignore the pain. The 300 curve is the hardest part, you're trying to build up to that death sprint, but it's not there inside of you. It comes anyways, nobody knows where from. We've got a crack team of researchers from MIT looking into it, but so far we've got nothing. So, you find it somewhere, and you go. That last 400 is emotionless, your brain turns off for that final push. You go, but even though your brain is quiet, the subconscious is painted like a giant mural on your stride, your shadow, your everything. They can see it, even if you can't hear it. Determination is solid, steady, repeatable and predictable. Your steps come the same, your arms move far and faster, farther than they need to. You're going, and you're going to finish. If your mind has given out, your steps are sloppy, your head looks around for some release from the terrible competition you and your body are in. Your stride betrays you in the 400, it'll give you away.

Whoa, poetics aside, I love that race. It's got speed, it's got you, your body, and your spirit giving it your all. It's got teamwork, it's got a shiny baton, and it's 4 minutes long. It's dramatic, it's powerful, it's everything track ought to be, and nothing that it shouldn't.

We got 2nd. From the way I write, you'd think we just won state. Nah, it was 2nd, at the JV meet. That's not much, but it was fun. We're taking it as seniors though. We've got Blake, who runs a 53 second 400. He went to state this year, and he always runs with the A team. I'm not too great at the 400 right now, but I think I could train up to it. Kirt has mad skills, he'll be dang good. I don't know if I'll even be on this amazing team, but wow, we've got potential. It's go time.

Break Time:

I said that this would be a crazy long post. I've got alot of stuff stored up there. If you want to stop now, go for it. The rest isn't going to be track related. I'm moving on to other topics. I promise, it'll be there tomorrow, so if you're tired of me, leave, and come back later.

There are two weeks of school left. This is a good thing. But, it also means there's alot of homework coming up. Things that I'm going to have to start working on.

In English, I've got to read 1984. It's finally gotten interesting, but I need to finish it about a week ago. Then I've got to write some essay comparing a character from 1984 to some character in another book I read. Yeah, I definitely didn't read another book. So, I'm using some character from the database of books I've read, and comparing him to some guy who's government says it's a crime to think. Makes for a dull boy.

I've got to do my algebra presentation thing on how people use math in real life. I don't even like group work in that class. It's hard, cause it's a bunch of people I don't have classes with and robert. I'd honestly rather do it myself. And so, I think I'm going to.

Those are pretty much it, but they're projects, and it's the last 2 weeks of school. That's a bad idea. I'll get em done though, but I can guarantee I'm going to procrastinate and then stress over them the night before they're due. Alas, that's my fate, I'll take it like a man.

Mesh networks are really cool. I might have mentioned them before. One of these days I'm going to write the future. I've got ideas. They're nothing but ideas. They're not money making schemes, they're not brilliant ideas about how the world is going to be. But I've got a picture of the future, and for some reason I want to get it out. One day I will. The problem is, it's not my style. Writing like that, not my style at all, so it's hard. One of these days though, one of these days.

Zero is an interesting thing. You can't divide by it. I honestly don't know why. I never really knew why. I always assumed that it'd end up as 0. I know it's a rule and all that you can't do it, but why not? Why can't we solve it? Why can't physics solve it? Why do graphs do that weird asymptote thing? Why can't it just be a happy straight line, devoid of huge gaping gaps in logic where 0 found its way into the denominator? What's the deal with zero?

I have no idea. But it's out there. That big zero. There's just some stuff that's gonna confuse you, so you can't do it. You pass any other value into it, and shabam, things work out great. But there's just that one number, that one idea that might not even be a number, that thought that is and yet isn't, that can't be passed into the equation. It confuses everything.

Zero is interesting, but I have an appreciation for zero.

I have a good idea for something to get the crowd involved. But, I don't feel like writing about it right now. I'm excited about it though, it'll be interesting. Also, I updated the gallery I think. I might have. I dunno, I plan on doing that after I finish writing this. But that doesn't mean I'm going to. I plan alot of things.

So yeah, I think that's it for tonight guys. This wasn't as long as I expected it'd be. I expected more. The track thing totally came out of nowhere too, I wasn't even gonna write about track. And there I went, writing like an animal. I swear I write the same thing every time I write. About how the sprints suck and how the distance rocks. How it's about what's inside, not about your legs. About how I almost hit the mark, but never quite. Yeah, it's look goosebumps. It's the same book, republished 132 times, with new names in the blanks. And this time, instead of the magical hand that kills things, it's a magical can of creamed corn. Spooky.

Region dance on saturday. Gonna be good. There's gonna be food, and girls, and more food.

Anything else? if you want to run cross country, it's gonna be fun. I'm getting good. I'm on two weeks break right now, workouts start soon. Ah, it's going to be nice.

Well friends, associates, mystery blank, I think it's time for me to go. I've been writing for a very long time. I think I might have a little fear of saying too much. Hmm, that's a new thought, I just barely had it. But ya know, I think it makes sense.

I'll have to sleep on that one. But, mystery blank, have a good night. From me, the man who writes too much and doesn't say enough, have a good night. Be happy. Don't be afraid to get out there and fight for the things you want. Don't be a pushover. Get out there and work hard, stop being a slacker. Just do it. It doesn't matter why, it doesn't matter if you're not going to get anything out of it, just do it. Do it because it's the right thing to do. Don't do it. That stupid thing that sounds a little shady? Don't do it. But that other thing, that thing you don't want to do, but know that you ought to do. Just do it. Go for it, it doesn't matter why, you know you ought to. Thank you Nike. Just do it.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's day everybody. My mom is amazing. She's the best. My mom could beat up your mom. But really, she's an amazing lady. Go mom go.

So here we are, it's been a while since I've written anything. I always want to write, but never really do. I figure it's because I put it off too long. I wait until night to write, I don't know exactly why. By the time it's night, it's usually too late. So, that's why things have been sparse. I'll try to write more, or something like that.

I've always got something to say. Every night my mind is filled with ideas and scenarios. I don't know why I don't write more, I'd love to. So, maybe I'll start doing that.

I'm trying out for Junior Choir tomorrow after school. I'm pretty excited for that. It took me a long time to make the decision to do it, but I think that it's going to be the best one. I'm very excited to not be taking jazz band next year. Jazz band is really cool, it's a great class, and it's alot of fun when you're there, and you just start grooving. But ya know, it's gotten to the point where for whatever reasons I can't play as well as I used to, and so it's not fun. I get in there and mess up, and that just makes me feel like a dork. It pretty much ruins my day. Not because the class isn't great, because it is, but just because I can't perform at that level. So, I'm excited to not have to worry about that next year.

Does this mean I can sing? Nah, not at all. I haven't sung anything but hymns in ages. I'm always running around singing stuff we play in band, but that's not really singing, that's just doing something with the notes, I'm not exactly sure what. That's always fun, but whatever. I was going to run through the audition song with some friends last night, but we were having too much fun to do that, and Dad was going to help me today, but we never really got to that, so it's 10:35 and I'm probably gonna go down and teach myself how to sing once I'm done with this. Hooray.

But, long story short: I know exactly what the guy to girl ratio is going to be in Junior Choir. I know "how much fun it's going to be!" I know guys. Give me a break. I can't tell you how many girls have accosted me this last month trying to trick me into trying out for Junior Choir. It's been outrageous. It'd be awesome if any of them had original arguments, but they don't. The last day to try out was week before last I think, I'm late. I never got around to it, because I didn't decide that that was what I wanted to do until very recently. I decided to do it for 3 reasons.

Number one was to be with my friends. This year I had very few classes with my former posse. I have one class with James, one class with Kyle, and no classes with Levi. This my friends, is terribly depressing. Me and Levi never hang out. Number one reason was for those guys, as well as my lady friends that I never see. It's like a good old fashioned reunion.

Number two was to escape jazz band. I like to think I'm good at alot of things. I'm not one of those people that says "I suck at this..." when really I don't. If I don't suck at it, I'm not going to say I do. Girls do this often, lots of guys do this. I really don't like to do it. So really, when I say I suck at something,I genuinely do. I suck at that trombone these days. I don't know what it is, I can't hit the right notes. My lips are gone or something. I know it's because I don't practice, but the fact is just that; I don't practice. So, Jazz Band is a crap shoot for me, by my own choice, not by any one else's fault. Doc's amazing, he's a stud, you can't not love Doc. But really, I want out, because I blow. Therefore, I take Junior Choir to run away.

Number three is that I genuinely want to learn how to sing. I figure it'd be nice, instead of just pretending all the time.

So there you have it. I didn't do it because it'd be an easy class, or because it'd be so fun, or because "there'll be two girls for every one guy!" ohmygosh, I don't care.

Sorry for the bitterness.

So, regions was wednesday and thursday I think. Something to that effect. I ran a 5:05, and that's not too bad, but definitely not as well as I had hoped. During warmups I really jacked my foot, and it's still bugging me. Apparently there's some hole of death by Jordan's tennis courts where we were doing our little dynamic stretches, and I totally rolled my left foot into one while I was doing the communist march. It was about 10 minutes before the race, and I didn't know if I'd be able to run or not. It stopped hurting, so I ran on it, but it's been a little screwed up ever since. I iced it night before last, and that helped a bit, I think I'll do that again tomorrow.

JV regions is on tuesday, that'll be fun. The rule is, you can only run events that you didn't run at regions in JV regions. So, no mile for me, no 3200. This means that this year, I won't be able to beat a 5 minute mile in a meet. that was my one real big goal for track, and I didn't do it. That's depressing and all, but I'll get over it, it's no big deal.

But, I'm excited for the meet. Providing that my foot stops hurting, I'm going to have alot of fun races to run. The 800 will be an adventure, but I figure I can do pretty good in it. The 400 will be alot of pain, and I know I won't run great, but it'll be fun nonetheless. Anything under that distance is just a joke for me, so whatever. Maybe I'll learn how to pole vault tomorrow, and do that too. We'll just have to see.

Which brings me to my next point, the deeper philosophical question of the day. Have I become a jock? See, I've run track since 8th grade, but I've never ever thought about it this much before. All the sudden, I'm thinking about track way more than I think about frisbee. I rarely ever think about frisbee anymore, it's always about track. I write about track. I eat so I can run faster in track. I get more sleep because I've got a meet. I worry about my foot because of track. I wear sunscreen so I don't die at track. For the first time in my life, athletics is becoming important to me.

So what's the deal? Am I a jock? I've been a nerd all my life, proud of it. However, that's my definition of a nerd, not anybody else's. This is newschool. It doesn't even mean what you think it does. Whatever idea about that word you've got, throw it out. It's new.

Anyways, it's a bit of an identity crisis for me. But really, no matter what title I assume, I'm still me, and I'm alright with that. I'm down with loving track. It's good for me, and gives me alot of cool opportunities. Track won't really take me anywhere in life, but it's nice to go out there with some friends and run. It's nice to be able to be on a team, to have some unity. It's nice to hang out with some older guys and learn from them. The distance team is really cool, it's a bunch of good guys. The sprint team isn't the most wholesome bunch, but the distance team is really cool, they're great guys. It's nice to hang out with those guys, and to get a little help in life from them. I've got nothing but respect for Clements and Whiting and Porter. It's good times.

School is almost out. I'm not exactly an excitable person. I'm very boring really. I mean, school's almost out. You'd think I'd have some emotion for that right? Nah, I'm down with it. It'll come. And when it does, I won't get any more sleep than usual. I'll go to work pretty soon, I'll run summer cross country. It'll be life.

Who is Brandon Hu? Brandon Hu is a legend. He has the high score on phoenix on all of your calculators. Jason Liu is the only person to have figured that out. Therefore, he wins the prize.

I will write him a poem tomorrow.

Alex Trebek: "Christopher Thatcher is about to do this, and then go to bed."

Contestant A: "What is, learn how to sing?"

Alex Trebek: "Correct, for 2,000 Junior Bacon Chesseburgers."


*edit*

So, dad just helped me learn how to sing. That was nice and fun, so I'm pretty happy about stuff now. Yeah, g'night champ.

*end edit*

G'night all. Happy mother's day. Keep up the good work. The future still looks bright. This post was sorta less than happy. I really am happy. Take it for what it's worth, but not anything more than that. There's alot to talk about, but not enough room to type it. Maybe sometime in the future. It's life. I like life. You ought to like life too, because things are going to be ok. Sometimes we get confused, but that's just cause we're looking way too closely. We need to take a step back. Just step back from things and things start to make sense. Today is just one day out of the year, and this year is just one tiny year in the 72 that you're statistically supposed to live. That's not very big. C'mon, just do the english assignment, it's good for you. Things are going to work out, the big things really aren't all that big, and the little things are apt to be the one's that end up important. Work hard, and don't give anything less than your best. You know what's right and wrong, so do what's right. Do it, and life will be good. G'night all, go tell your mothers or whatever special ladies there are in your life that you love them.

Talk

Talk is cheap. The fact is, I ran a 12 minute 3200 today. The last 3200 I ran was 11.29. So, I added 30 seconds today. Why? Well, there are all sorts of reasons, but the fact is, talk is cheap.

For all my talking about domination, all my thoughts about how hard I was gonna push it, it didn't come true. I ran crud today, it wasn't even good. And really, I'm ok with that. The point that I'm trying to make though, is that talk won't get you anywhere. Results get you places. Talk doesn't go anywhere, talk is cheap. I can talk all I want up here. I could type all night till the sun comes up, and it wouldn't really get anything done. You know what gets stuff done? Results. Getting out there and doing something. For all the talk, it boils down to what you've done with your life. What have you done? What have I done?

Tomorrow we're going to finish the meet. Since it's regions, it's a 2 day meet. Today I ran the 3200, tomorrow I run the 1600. Today I ran terrible, tomorrow, I'm going to run with a purpose. Tomorrow is redemption. I've already been the region II fat kid once this week, I don't want to do it twice.

You know, this whole post is starting to have a very "I'm a downer" feel to it, and I know that Nick is gonna call me on it. Really, I'm not a downer tonight, I'm just busting out what I've been thinking all day. It's not depressing, it's just the way that I feel. I don't think it's sad, I think it's pretty decent. It's a good lesson to learn. You can talk all you want, but when you get out there to real life, it's results that matter. I don't care how well you talk, if you can't flip burgers, Artic Circle won't hire you. Life, this is where it counts.

Life is a very interesting thing. It's hard to step back and look at a bigger picture of life. It's still something that I have trouble doing, but I've been trying. People give us advice all the time. They tell me what classes to take, what things to do with my free time, what books to read. They tell me what to eat, how to eat, and where to eat. They tell me to get plenty of fresh air and exercise. They tell me that it's not a trash can. They tell me all sorts of things, things that are designed to, in the end, make my life better.

But the truth is, they've never been me. I've never even been me. Tomorrow, I get one shot at May 11th, 2006. I get one shot at being 15 years and 346 days old. No one sitting around here has been me tomorrow yet. Nobody went to the track meet today and ran the 3200 in 12 minutes in my heat except for me.

Hi, I'm new here. I've never done this before. I'm going to school on may 11th, 2006 for the first time tomorrow. I've never been to Taylorsville on may 11th, 2006 before. It's going to be an entirely new experience for me. Going a little deeper, You've never been to school on May 11th, 2006 either. You've got no idea what's going to happen.

Hi, you're new too. Maybe we can be friends.

But probably not, I'm out of deodorant.

Blogtastic

The Picture of the Week

I'm not quite sure where this one came from. Months ago I was just playing around with the tupper-symbol in photoshop, and ended up with this. It's all sharp and fuzzy at the same time, I like it.

The Quote of the Week

"People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get."
- Frederick Douglass

Can't argue with that one.

So, happy Sunday eh? It's the start of a new week. I'm fairly excited about it. Looks like we've got CRT's all week, so that means no homework. Not too shabby. Hopefully I'll get an A on MJ's test. I finished it last time, pretty decent too I think. Yay for actually doing the homework so I understand the content. Bunch of slackers anyways...

Just kiddin, you're all alright.

So, I've noticed a serious lack of unity in the world around me. More especially, a serious lack of unity in the blogosphere. (Man I hate using stupid terms...)

So, here it is, the network as far as I know.

cjthatcher.blogspot.com Christopher Thatcher
cjthatcher.googlepages.com Christopher Thatcher Gallery
fuzzypandas.blogspot.com Nick Morandi
fcwhiteblues.blogspot.com Jaron Frost
fcblackblues.blogspot.com Jaron Frost alternate

I know that the list is very very incomplete. Problem is, I have no idea who's got what out there. If you've got a blog, let me know so I can throw it up here. If you know somebody with a blog, let me know so I can throw it up. I'm only gonna list blogs that aren't extinct, otherwise the list would be alot bigger. I think this could end up sorta cool, we might as well know what we're all writing right? So, leave me a comment telling me, cause I need some more names.

By the way, everything listed up there so far is pretty good I think. They are recomended by me. So go, spread the love.

Also worth noting, myspace is for suckers. Just say no. It's not even good. In fact, it's bad. If you're worried that there's somebody you'd never talk to except for myspace, learn to email. Just say no.

Hmm, what else, what else? I'm the scout camp dance champion of the world. Yeah, we did the Indian Lore merit badge at the district camporee, and I dominated the dance scene. After we were all done with the merit badge, we had a "pow wow" at the end, where everybody got in a big circle and indian danced. The top 20 were then sent to the semi finals, where they danced some more. Then, the top seven were selected, and then sent up on stage to dance it off. It was dance till you drop, as soon as you start sucking, you got pulled. The last two standing one.

That's right, I was one of those two. You can't touch this mad indian dancing skill. *shakes ceremonial stick at y'alls*

That's all I got, read the post underneath this one, it's a sorta good one. Leave me a comment telling me if there's any blogs I've missed. Keep up the good work.

Christopher Thatcher -out-

The Lies Your Parents Told You

Slow and steady does not win the race. For years and years in elementary school, all of our teachers told us this every day. Every single day they'd tell me to slow down, that slow and steady wins the race. That I didn't need to finish my assignment so fast, that it was ok to not be the first done.

When it came time to do the physical fitness test, they told us the same thing. Don't sprint the mile then walk then sprint then walk then sprint then fall over. It's a better idea to jog the whole thing, you'll get a better time. Slow and steady wins the race.

They tell you the story of the tortoise and the hare. They tell it so convincingly that you begin to really believe that there was a mythical tortoise that beat the magical hare. They become real people to you. No longer a fairy tale, but a documented piece of history, and important piece of history.

It's a bunch of lies. They lied to you. How do you feel about that? I feel angry and betrayed. I'm here to tell you that the establishment has been leading you astray since day one. It's a giant conspiracy. Our most recent intelligence (and I'm talking recent) all points towards the Russians.

Friday afternoon was the Cougar Last Chance track meet. It's the last chance to qualify for state. In order to go to state you've got to have a killer time. So, for the mile it's 4.30 something. The whole idea behind this track meet is that it's the last chance to make it. It's the cougar last chance.

The only race I was signed up for was the 3200 meters. That's 2 miles. 8 laps. I was used to doing fairly well in these races, getting 5th or 6th at tri-meets.

There weren't too many people in the race, probably only about 18. I figured I had a decent shot at doing ok, in theory I was racing against a bunch of sophies and freshmen. So, the race starts, and I'm excited. I'm wearing whiting's spikes, I'm wearing insanely short shorts, and my thighs are luminous as ever. For the third time that week, it was go time.

Now, the thing about 3200 meters is that it's long. I swear I've said this before. It's easy to get distracted. Shiny objects, ya know? Yeah, this paragraph is a repeat. Go to 20.

The race starts, and the madmen jump out of there like madness. They are hauling it. I'm with them the first 100 meters, around that first curve. My brain however, is starting to go into survival mode. I want to win. I'm plotting the way I'm gonna dominate. That's what you do when you've got 3200 meters to think about stuff. That's a long time to make a plan.

While I was calculating, I was also beginning to disbelieve what was going on before my eyes. My comrades, my brethren, were throwing away everything that the establishment had so graciously engrained in us. Every part of me inside says "Slow and steady wins this race." But they, oh no, they were HAULING it. Their pace was ridiculous. They couldn't do this, they were going to make their teacher mad, AND lose the race.

This made me half incredulous, half excited. A dead contestant means an easy contestant to beat. While my comrades were dashing the tortoise and the hare on the rocks, I was biding my time. I knew that they couldn't keep this up forever. They were going to fall over and die, and I was going to win.

I knew exactly what I was going to do. I was going to run my first 4 laps at a good pace, but not too harsh. And then, I was gonna bust it for the next two, and really bust it the last two. I was going to dominate, and pass them around the 2nd to last lap. THey were going to fall over, and I was going to step over their limp forms to victory.

How could I lose? The establishment was on my side.

Yeah, they lied to me. I got slaughtered. These robot boys just kept on running. I don't know how they did it. There was no mercy, they just went, and I didn't. They ran fast, but I was slow and steady.

Slow and steady doesn't win any races.

Ridiculously fast and steady, now that's where the money is at.

It doesn't help that due to the 3200 being so long and boring, I forgot what my plan was. C'mon, you guys don't realize how easy it is to get distracted. I forgot the whole "Bust it the last 4 laps" part of the plan. The "easy does it" part lasted for 8 whole laps. oops.

You know what establishment? You suck. Way to ruin my high school track career.

See, it's funny how I can make a 10 minute and 40 second race into such a long story. I'm longwinded, but I like it that way. If you don't like it, go to Russia. Maybe you can help them sabotage the United States olympic dreams with their tortoise and hair lies some more.

More to come later tonight yeah?

Why I write

The Picture of the Week

The Quote of the Week
"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."
- Mahatma Gandhi

Why do I write? Somedays I don't know why I write, but I'm very glad that I do.

If I were to walk outside tomorrow and get hit by a car, there'd still be a little piece of me up here. I wouldn't be lost forever. Maybe some day, in some distant time, somebody will stumble upon this place and remember me. Maybe when I've ridden off into the sunset, somebody will say "Remember Thatcher? He did great things."

Of course, that relies on whether or not I do great things. Nobody remembers the slackers. "Nobody mourns the wicked"

There are some pieces of writing that I am genuinely proud of. Sometimes I write things that I really just don't like, but other times I surprise myself. There are alot of words on this blog. But ya know, if I were to get hit by a car tomorrow, I'd be happy if only a few of them ever get remembered.

So here you go, my top 5 favorite posts ever. Feel free to go back and read them if you're feeling bored, I'm proud of them.

Game On [Friday, Feb.10, 2006]

- "Tonight we proved to the world that dreams are real, that anything can be overcome with determination. Tonight we stood up, and proudly announced to the audience that we were not going to lie down and die. Tonight, there was power running through us all. A power that you couldn't see, a power that you couldn't quite name, but a power that brought us together."

Thank You [Thursday, Nov. 24, 2005]

- "Thank you Mr. Fiack, for teaching me algebra, even though I hated it, I learned everything I needed. Thank you Brough and Sharpe, for oppurtunities to prove myself. Thank you Mom and Dad, for everything. You're the very best parents ever. I wouldn't be anything without you guys, thanks so much."

The Best Game Ever Played II [Sunday, Nov. 20, 2005]

- "at 13-13, play starts to get fierce. It brings out the very best and worst of all the players on the field. When you make a good play, you know it, and your heart goes wild. When you screw up, it's one of the very worst feelings you've ever had. You've invested so much into the game, it hurts to lose it. Your legs hurt, your hands are getting hashed from catching, swatting, and throwing. Your lung hurt from the cold air, your breath comes out hard and short, and very frosty. But you know why you're in the game, and you know that you want to win. You put everything out there. This is when Frisbee gets real."

Feel Free Not to Read This [Saturday, Jan. 7, 2006]

- "Sometimes you just gotta spill your guts. This is what I want to talk about. This is what I'm talking about now. The problem with this is that you don't know if anyone is catching your guts. this is a very indirect gut toss. your guts can sometimes hang in the air for a week before somebody catches them here."

*note, I originally didn't want anybody to read that post. However, I've come to realize that even when I'm having a crappy night, I'm still me, and I still think like me. It's important that we're always us, even when times are rough. It's me, even if I don't like it.

Sing [Wedsnesday, January 11, 2006]

- "I smile anyways. I smile because life doesnt suck. Even if sometimes it's not the best in the world, its really the roxxorz in the end. Why? Cause I can type in l33t all I want, and there's no chinese censor deleting this trash. Cause downstairs, my mom is sitting reading the paper, and she's the best cook I've ever seen. My pops is watching simpsons, and he's just a stallion. He's got one kidney, he's a heck of a scoutmaster, and he makes fun of the same people I do. In 8 hours, I'm gonna wake up, and say "Good crap, it's too early" but Im gonna roll out anyways, and go to school, and enjoy it. Cause MJ can't live forever. Cause there's gonna be snow frisbee on friday. Cause my mouse has a right click."

Whoosh. There you have it. The reason I write? Because I don't want to be forgotten.

Freedom is on the march. The real kind.

That's all I've got for tonight. I hope you're all doing well. Expect good stuff this week. I slacked last week, but I'm going to write something awesome soon. I've got lots of good stories to tell. (Dance champion, Frisbee mutual, and that's about it) But oh well, keep up the good work. If any of you have anything you want me to post, any work you've done, any suggestions for picture of the week. Let me know eh?

It's go time.