Take a Knee

Hey guys, sorry it's been so long. I've been gone for a lot of the week, and being gone prevents me from writing. However, I am going to make a renewed effort to write more often. I love writing, and it accomplishes alot of goals that I've got. Therefore, there shall be more writing.

Life is good.

Total miles run this week: 1
Total games of DOTA this week: 0
Total unique sessions of frolicking in a fountain: 3
Total nights spent in a sleeping bag: 3

So the week has been awesome. The family reunion went really well. I enjoyed it. The montage thing worked out decently, and we had a good time. I went down the river a couple times, that was awesome action.

Youth conference was just amazing. It was the best youth conference I've ever been to. I learned a ton of awesome stuff, grew alot, and had some super awesome fun. I ate like crazy. I had 9 slices of pizza last night. Half of our meals were eaten in the cafeteria, and so I had about 3 meals for every one of those. That's 9 meals, score it. I just didn't stop, it was super. I got to do some water ballet in a fountain, and spend a good 3 hours talking to fluffy bunny on the radio. It was great times.

The trouble about Youth Conference is I know that it's slowly going to be leached out of my brain. I'm gonna forget, and that's not even good. I really want to remember all that stuff, I don't want to lose it. Of course, it's gonna. It's gonna seep out all secret like until all but the really big stuff is gone. So I'm gonna try to write it in the journal. I type so much faster than I write, it's ridiculous. I spent half an hour writing last night, and I could have typed it in about 7 minutes. So really now, typing is crazy fast.

The Frisbee drive has been receding lately. I haven't been throwing good for the last couple weeks. I think one of the issues is I've gotten way too excited about the biscuit and the hammer throw, and haven't been sticking to the basics too well. I gotta get back into the old school. I really haven't been throwing well, even just tossing around in my free time. Hopefully this next friday will be good, I'm always excited for it. It's a unique adventure, different from the rest of the week. It's a standing appointment, it's great.

But I'm thinking that maybe the frisbee club isn't going to be as huge and complex as I previously had planned. It'll prolly be alot more relaxed. I wanna teach a ton of people how to play, get them a little more conditioned, and make sure that there's always a good game going on when people want to play. Facilitating scheduling, facilitating good training sessions. If the people that actually end up joining and coming want more stuff to go on, I'm awesome with that, we can go really far. But really now, I'm not going to drag anybody. Because that's not what it's all about, we're just gonna get out there, have fun, learn some skills, and end up being able to run a mile without dying. That's my main goal there.

I had so much to write about this week. Alot of the main ideas are captured on the hard paper, so it might resurface later. For now, it's lost in my memory. I don't really like to write about events, I like to write about ideas. I had alot of ideas. Where do spiders go? They're always going somewhere, but I never know where. But anyways, I've got a raging plan. A most raging plan in fact.

This next week, going from July 30th to August 5th, is going to be blog-a-day. You might recall I did a blogaday in the past. That actually ended up bring out some awesome dynamics. My favorite ended up being a raging adventure in time management. So that's what this next week's goal is. A blog a day for 7 days straight. Can I do it? I sure hope so. I'm going to need inspiration and support. But really now, I believe in myself, I'm gonna do it, and I'm gonna be a better person for doing it.

Also, I'm going to host a haiku competition. My last competition is nearly done. I just need to ask Jason Liu how he did that poll on his site, so we can get to voting. That's really what it's taken so long, because we haven't had a good way to vote. But now all the sudden it looks like we might, so that'll wrap up soon.

Anyways, Haiku contest. For those of you that don't know, a haiku is a 3 line poem with 17 syllables. It goes 5-7-5. It's a short poem, and the trouble is getting meaning in within such a small canvas. The reason I chose a haiku contest is that it's universally possible. Nobody can't write a haiku. Haiku's are rarely serious things. You've got no time within 17 syllables to talk about the girlfriend that dumped you. You do, however, have the capability to write about your terrible halo skills. A haiku example will be up tomorrow for y'alls.

I don't have the details of the contest all figured out, but once I do I'll throw them up. In the meantime, start writing some if you feel like it. Send em to me, I'll post em up here. It's going to be great. I hope you'll all help out with this one. We had a ton of paint coming in for the last competition, let's see some raging haiku's.

So really, this post could have been deep. By all means it should have been deep. I've got so much to write about. I could write about bat bombs. Maybe they'll come out during blogaday. They're pretty ingenius. This post is just the gateway for something greater. Blogaday is coming, and it's gonna be raging. I'm excited.

It's 1:45 AM. It's time for bed. I only worked out about twice this week, and both were very little workouts. I ate like an animal, but I think that did alot of good. It gave my body a chance to build back a bunch of stuff it hasn't been able to stockpile because of the constant running. Wow, I love being a 16 year old guy. Things are pretty good. I've got some dates out there on the horizon. School will be starting soon, and I'm nothing but excited for that. Tomorrow is Sunday, and Sundays are always great. I'm excited to be here, things are good. Keep up the good work guys. I'll see you all tomorrow. G'night pals~

Bunk

The Picture of the Week




















Yeah, that's definitely my grandpa Thatcher. I never knew the man, he died before I was born. But that's him swabbing a deck, he was a navy guy from what I can gather. The important thing is, it's easy to see where I got my studly good looks from. Keep up the good work Grandpa.

The Quote of the Week
"History is more or less bunk"
-Henry Ford

So, it's 1:00 AM, and I'm just starting this. That's late, it's been a long day. I'm tired, so this post might end up a little different from others. I've got different glasses on. I try to avoid blogging when I'm wearing certain glasses, because nobody wants to read about how tired I am. However, I think it's important that I preserve my thoughts, even when they're not entirely happy-go-lucky. To get an accurate portrait of me, you've got to catch the ugly parts too.

So here I am, it's tired, and I'd love to be in bed. But I'm not going to be, because I want to write. I really enjoy writing. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something, and it helps get alot of thoughts out. I have no problem with having thoughts "in", I just like to get them posted up here so I can come back and remember stuff. I think that's what I value most in this blog though, the thinking. I really don't care how frisbee was. When I come back a month or two later to read something I wrote, I'm not concerned about hammer throws. I'm still intrigued by my analogies, and the stuff I've thought of. I like the theories, the wonderings and ponderings. So, you're gonna get some of that tonight. As well as some stories. yay.

Sometimes it's important to have some incorrect grammar every once in a while. It's unique, and it's generally on purpose. Language is a tricky thing, in that it's got rules and rules, but that it's very flexible at the same time. It is in the hands of the people. Language is a tool that has been created by the people for the people. Nobody ever sat down to determine how a language was gonna work. It just sorta happened.

So really now, who's to tell me that I'm wrong? Who's to tell me that I'm using a word wrong? I'm using it exactly the way that I want to, conveying the meaning that I think ought to be conveyed. I am giving others information, that's the whole point of this language business.

If we were to stumble upon a previously-unknown bunch of natives living in a jungle somewhere, we'd probably find that they had a pretty unique language. It'd have all sorts of fun little nuances and quirks. We wouldn't question them about whether it was proper or not. We wouldn't care that it was slang. It's how they talk, it's their language.

So why, when people stumble upon me and my great state of Utah, do they tell me that I talk funny? Why are they upset that I can't say 'both' without adding that awesome L sound? The truth is, it's my language, and you can't tell me that it's wrong. Because language is in the hands of the people, and I sure fit into that whole people category. If Mexican folk don't talk the same way that Spanish folk talk, nobody minds.

So really, language is in the hands of the people. It's always changing. Anyone that tries to tell me I talk wrong is just speaking a different version of English than I am.

That whole tirade was brought on by the fact that I had a sentence fragment in the 3rd paragraph or whatever. It wasn't planned, it just came out.

Frisbee tonight was bunk. We didn't have enough people at the start, but eventually they came. I didn't play well at all, made a ton of mistakes. We were missing alot of our high quality guys, so it made the game alot harder. It was dissappointing, but it'll be better in the future.

This week has been very mixed. Parts of it have been great, and parts of it haven't been. Cross country was not so great this week. I was a slacker, and that's not a good feeling at all. I didn't run tuesday or wednesday at all. Monday was a distance run that I took too easy. Today was swimming, and I worked hard at that. Today was really the only good practice I had this week. Cross country should have been good this week, but I didn't put the necessary work in, so it was sorta lame.

However, things are still good. I went to the doctor wednesday morning, and I've got all sorts of good news. First and foremost, I finally passed the 6 foot mark. Yay. I measured 72.25 inches tall. Score it. My A1C came back 6.6, my best since I was diagnosed really. Last time it was 8.4, so this was really a great improvement. The target is somewhere around 7, so 6.6 was mad pro. I was very happy with that. All this running has really been doing great things for my body.

My brother Andrew is now on a mission. He's in the MTC right now, learning Spanish and the whatnot. I'm really going to miss him, but it's going to be alright. I know he's doing the right thing, and that the world's gonna be a better place cause of it. So, I won't see him for 2 years. I inherited his video camera, that's pretty cool. I haven't used it much yet, but I'm excited about the possibilities.

Oh gag me, I'm tired.

It's a really nice feeling to come home and have something waiting for you. Something new and nice. It's sorta an empty feeling when you arrive and there's nothing at all. That's just a downer. What is it about stuff waiting for you? Maybe it just makes you feel important, makes you feel like the world missed you whilst you were gone.

Moral of the story is, it's nice to have stuff waiting for you.

So, what's the deal with the UBSCT? It exists to make sure that our students are above a certain level before they graduate. That's a great plan. That'd make it so the kids that don't have the skills to really succeed in life have to go back for another year of school to get them. In theory, it'd lead to a better society.

But really, you can graduate without passing it, you just have to take it 4 times. Or something like that, I'm not really sure of the specifics. But come now folks, if you're going to have a test that you have to pass in order to graduate, you might as well follow through with the threats. You're not going to make the world a better place by letting the kids without skills graduate because they never stopped trying. It's not a punishment, it's helping us.

So, what's the deal? Even if I fail the test 4 times, I'll graduate. Unprepared to work for Carl's Junior. What's the good?

A couple weeks ago, I came home from helping at a little kid track meet, and I was totally beat. I was tired, hungry, angry, and all sorts of other negative adjectives. I was just beat. So, I go and look in the mirror, and my hair looks great. It's all gelled and nice, it's like, whoosh. All smooth, makes me look sophisticated. And really, that was bad news. Because right then, my hair wasn't representing how I felt inside. It was totally off. My hair should have been done for, messed up and tired. But nah, it was solid and set and looking relatively nice.

That's odd. I fully expected it to mirror the way that I was feeling on the inside, but it didn't. That shocked me, my hair is supposed to follow me around and do what I do. Why is this relevant? I don't care, I'm not the one that has to read it.

I've got some more ideas and stuff. Stuff to talk about, stuff that I could talk about but don't have to. As for now, I'm off to bed. It's late. I don't have morning practice tomorrow, so I can sleep in. That's a great feeling there. I need more sleep. Drinking more water is a great idea. iI want to do some amazing stuff some day. I wanna be great.

Life is like everything else. You get out of it what you put in to it. Go big or go home.

Bits/Pieces

Hooray, the old model at the side of the frisbee, except he's been updated to look alot cooler. I gave him some pimp gloves, and made some little stripes to give him more of a megaman feel. I like this one the most so far, hooray for random photoshop fun.

It's been a while since I've written anything, I've meant to for a while but haven't gotten around to it. This week has been pretty good, things are on the up and up. Cross country has been going well, I ran every day this week minus today (saturday), but I still got a bit in. I know I ought to run saturdays, but that'll have to wait till next week to start, considering it's 10 minutes from Sunday. But either way, we did cross training in the pool on Friday, and that was super fun again. I'm a terrible terrible swimmer, but it's a good workout. I won't go into the gruesome details, but I definitely drank alot of that pool, and Hugie took a chunk out of my pinky when we were playing water basketball. We had some chicken fights for part of practice, people on our shoulders trying to knock the other guys off. Little clements was on my shoulders, and we were totally champions both times we fought. Despite the glory, my neck is extremely sore from it all, and that's sort of a downer. Moral of the story is, join the cross country team.

Hmm, that brings up another unfortunate point. There are no girls in our generation that run anymore. They've all sorta lapsed out of existence. Marissa used to, but she hasn't been to practice in ages, we can only assume she's broken both shins. Heather was coming, but then she went on vacation for a bunch of weeks, and now is playing softball/basketball. Whatsherface ran with us last year for a bit, but I never talked to her, and haven't seen her since. So, pretty much there aren't any girls in our generation that run, and that's a downer.

But things are still going great for the team. We're gonna be super. Kirt's got mad skills, Trevor's got mad skills, and me and santy are working on getting some mad skills. Once the season starts, we ought to have at least 3 runners that are competing, instead of just getting owned like last year. We won't be winning too many meets, but we're still gonna run our little hearts out. I'm really excited for it.

My life has become pretty simple these past couple weeks. It revolves around cross country, frisbee, sleep, family, and food. Every once in a while you can sprinkle a little warcraft in there, and if there's time maybe hanging out with a few people. But really, it goes back to those 5 basics. Most things I think about are directly linked to them.

I wake up in the mornings, and go do my crazy cross country workout of death. I'm almost starting to like waking up in the mornings, it's becoming alot easier for me. I never ever get to bed on time, so I end up with anywhere from 4 to 6 hours of sleep before I have to get up and go running. But, I go run on limited sleep, then come home and take a nap till sometime in the afternoon. I wake up, and forage for food. When my stomache is satisfied, I hang out with Andrew, or find some friends to talk to for a bit. This goes on for some time, until I start eating again, or running again, or hanging out with my whole family. I then go to sleep, and repeat the process.

Changes occur every friday, and even some other days if circumstances are right. On Fridays, I wake up, go to practice, come home and sleep like any other day. The big difference happens once I wake up, when all my thoughts start to gravitate towards the coming frisbee game. Fridays exist for frisbee. I start getting ready at about 6, and don't get him till 11 or 12. When I eat food on fridays, I eat so I can play frisbee, not cause I'm hungry. When I take a nap on fridays, I nap for frisbee energy, not because I'm tired. Fridays are all about frisbee.

Every other day, well, they're about cross country, or sleep, or food, or family.

My brother got married yesterday. Score! I'm really happy for him, and I really like his wife. she's really cool. It was a great wedding, everything went really well. It was just a really good quality operation. Not too much junk going on, none of the unnecessary junk, just the important stuff. So yeah, way to go Nathan. I'm not distantly related to little peter, how cool is that? He's a cool kid.

Time to get down to business. It's bits and pieces time. I don't have any way to connect all this stuff. It's just gonna come out, and it's gonna be disjointed. Some of it will be good, some of it will be stupid. Score it.

Todays song is definitely "yellow" by coldplay. I have no idea what the songs about, I don't really get it, but I know I like it. It's a good song.

Over the past couple months, I've found myself becoming something that I hate. Alot of you know that I'm not a big fan of "popularity." I mean, I won't hate somebody because they're 'popular', but I think it's a stupid thing to strive for. I'm not the biggest fan of people that go farming for friends. In my world, friends sorta just happen. They're not something that you add to your list, and not something that you really go about 'asking' for. They just sorta happen, ya know.

So, I was running around the school way back when during track, and I said hi to at least 4 people in a minute as we ran past, and I classified every single one of them as a stallion. This was trouble. You see, I was one of the people that run around the halls saying hi to EVERYBODY and getting up in everybody's bidness. If I had been looking at myself from afar, I would have accused myself of friend farming.

Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with saying hi to everybody, and thinking everybody is cool. I just sometimes get the feeling that some people are doing it just because they can, doing it to feel cool or something. I've got troubles with that one. So, I was quite alarmed when I found myself being a friend farmer.

However, after alot of self reflection, looking deep inside of myself, I have determined that I in fact am not a friend farmer. Here's my theory: By coincidence, 4 stallions happened to be in my path in the course of one minute. It wasn't that I was making everyone a stallion, it was that I ran in to 4 stallions.

See, that makes me sleep a little better inside. I have been worried about something that's come to be known as the stallion effect inside my head. You all know it, I call alot of people stallions. I throw the term around like candy. But, like supply and demand, if you flood the market, it's value goes down. So, has the value of being a stallion really dropped?

See, I don't believe that it has. I still mean it every time that I say it. Here we are, it's 2006, and the world is at a very unique place. It's never been here before. The way I see it, the world is the best it's ever been, and the worst it's ever been. It's going to keep continuing on this trend. So, we've got alot of dirtbags, that's for sure. We can pick them out all we want. We've got drugs, we've got gangs, we've got murders, we've got teen pregnancies up the wazoo. We've got divorce, we've got people trying to hit their spouses with trucks, we've got all sorts of crazy stuff going on. If one were to focus on the negatives, it's easy to see that everything sucks.

But, at the same time, I think we've got the greatest generation ever. We're some of the first people to live in a state where smoking in public buildings is illegal. Our lungs are better than anybody else's. We haven't been licking lead based paint for all of our childhoods. We haven't been smoking asbestos. Jaron said a while ago that he was mad that he never got to do stupid stuff, because now he can't tell his kids "when I was your age, I did stupid stuff...". The way I see it, we're the coolest because we don't have to do stupid stuff. We don't have to go bungie jumping with nothing but crisco smeared all over our legs to learn a lesson. We've got a bunch of all stars that the world has never seen before. We've got good kids, growing up all the time, ready to go do awesome things in the world.

Case in point: We've got Jared and Jose. Two raging stallions from the cross country team. Lots of you know Jared, I don't even know his last name. A few might know Jose, he's raging nonetheless. But really, these are good kids like we've never seen before. They're nice guys, smart guys, guys that are ready to work. They are gonna get out there and make a difference. They're not gonna be famous, but that's gonna be alright with them. Things are gonna be good, because for every couple drug problems, every couple teen pregnancies, we've got someone like Jared, or someone like Jose. We've got a bunch of good kids, just waiting to get out and do some good.

So say what you want about the world, I'm filled with hope for the future. You're not gonna keep this generation down. You couldn't stop us if you tried. Freedom is on the march, the real kind.

So, that was disjointed deal number one. The stallion effect. There are more people worthy of the stallion title today than ever before. Granted, there are more people around than ever before, but I think we've got higher quality people. It's no surprise that when I run around school I find so many stallions to greet. The world is getting a whole lot better, thanks to this generation. No more asbestos, no more lead paint. No more cold war. No more arms build up. No more smoking, no more crap. This generation is going to make it big. We got the power, we got the skills.

You guys may have read about the quadripalegic (not spelled right) guy that everyone's getting all excited about because the doctors put some stuff in his brain, and he's been able to move a cursor around a computer screen and do some other stuff with it. That's pretty good news, but it's not exactly break through. The concept of just using your brain to move the mouse around the computer screen is way old school, from what I understand they've been doing similar things in monkeys for a few years now.

Now, this is where things get a little hazy. I read up on this a couple years ago, and so I've got all these opinions and ideas that have formed since then based on the knowledge that I've got. So, we start to delve into the realm of me pretending I know a little more than I really do. But here goes, it's gonna be great.

Hmm. As far as I'm concerned, there's no reason why a very very rich man couldn't control his television with his mind. Technology has existed for a really long time that'll show brainwaves, or which parts of the brain are firing off electric signals, and all that jazz.

Now, the trouble with that, is your brain has tons and tons of nerves and neurons and other technical jargon that can send off signals. Back in the day, when this brain technology was just getting underway, we used to think that there was one specific signal for everything. A signal like "go eat a banana" would be totally unique from "Go eat a pineapple".

Now we can tell that it's alot more complex than that. It's like a big organ. Our old theory was that we had a ton of keys, and when you hit that special #E, you'd want a banana. There would be hundreds and hundreds of keys on this piano, but it was easy to find out which one was the banana key. Now, we can tell that this organ is a thousand stories high, with millions of rows of keys. It's a giant cylindrical tower, and your brain is standing in the middle, hitting keys left and right. But, instead of one key meaning "I want a banana", we know that when we want a banana, our brain is hitting thousands of keys at once, all a little differently. It's a symphony of signals getting thrown about, not just plucking off one solo note. This makes things alot more complicated. It's easy to pick out a note, but it's difficult to analyze a symphony in a second.

So, that's the analogy. When we want to go right, our brain sends that idea, that message, as it makes thousands of individual neurons send messages. All of these combined end up sending the go right message. It's not just one message, it's huge.

So, we've got that down. We've established that you can't just look at what keys are being played and figure out what we want. However, with these cool chips that they keep putting in people without limbs brains, they can find out a lot more keys that are being played. Back in the day they'd put a suction cup deal on your forehead and the sides of your head, and they'd pick up some stuff. But now we're listening closer, and hear even more notes. It's an even bigger symphony going on in that swirling organ. (PUN!)

Anyways. the catch is, if you keep looking at all the notes that are getting fired off, you start to figure out the jist of which one is go right. Then, you look at that, and when that one fires off, you can make the cursor go right. So, you watch this guys brain, and when those notes are firing, you can translate that with your computer, and make the cursor move right.

That's what they did with the monkeys a few years ago. They could get them to chase something around the screen, moving the cursor with just their thoughts. They trained them on it by giving them little rewards of juice when it worked out right.

So, the technology exists to get into someones brain and figure out what signals are getting thrown around. The technology also exists to assign certain patterns certain commands. When the monkey's brain does this, make the cursor go that way. Eventually the monkey learns that to make the cursor go that way, you think this. Viola.

So, why can't we give a rich man the TV he can change with his mind? In theory, we could. We just put the chip in his brain, and spend a day or two assigning brain patterns to remote commands. This is where it gets hairy though. The brain function for "change to channel 13" is going to be very very very similar to "change to channel 2". So similar in fact, that I doubt you'd be able to detect the difference. So, you've got the task of assigning new patterns. Unique patterns. You don't want a rich guy accidentally changing the channel when he gets excited during a basketball game. You can't exactly use patterns that are common. The "I'm hungry" pattern should never have anything to do with this man changing the channel. You can't really have overlap when a TV remote in placed in your head.

So, after a very lengthy introduction, we get to what I've been thinking about. I think that in the future, alot of the upper class is going to have the chips. Ok, I take it back. I don't really think this is going to happen, but I think that this is a very plausible outcome based on current circumstances. If trends continue... the rich get the chips. More and more things become brain activated. You want to unlock your car, you think the magic thought, your car unlocks. You've got alot of rich people willing to pay for it.

So, more and more devices begin to be brain friendly. Then you get the problem of unlocking your car AND opening the garage door. Things start to overlap when you use common brain patterns.

So what's going to happen? There's going to be a new alphabet of sorts. That's my bet. You're not going to be able to assign "unlock the car" to the "unlock the car" brain pattern. You get too much overlap. You're going to have to learn something unique. Something easily recognizable as different from the other stuff going on in your brain. When you get your implant, they're going to take you into a little room, and show you a cool symbol that you've never seen before. The symbol will be colored sorta weird, and have some very unique things about it. They're going to analyze how you react to this symbol. How your brain waves move, they're gonna record that. They're gonna give you 30 or so different symbols. All unique, all designed to be new to you. So then, when you want to unlock your car, you can think of that fiery ╫ in the sky, and shabam, you've got an unlocked car.

The technology is there, and it's been proven possible. It'd be alot of work, but it's out there, possible. I'm still waiting for a very rich man to start the business of brain recognition. All you'd really need would be a team of about 40 people to test on. You'd have to come up with a completely unique 'alphabet'. Something the world has never seen, something completely unique. You wouldn't want your car starting in the middle of the night cause you dreamed of the letter E. You'd need a bunch of rich people that are tired of having their butler unlock the car for them, they'd rather do it with their mind. It'd be difficult, but you could do it. And if you were the first to do it, you'd get filthy filthy rich off of it.

So, if there happen to be any billionaire's reading this with a few good buddies that happen to be brain surgeons, I expect results from you guys. Why can't rich folks unlock their car with their minds? I demand to know.

There's money to be made. Go go go.

It's 1:24. The moon was orange tonight. I have no idea why, but it looked really cool. I think it might have been from all the smog and fires and stuff we've had. I don't rightfully know, but it was very cool action.

and now, for some lists.

If I were a billionaire, there are a few things that I would never be without. And here they are, in no particular order.

My house would always be stocked with bananas. I'd hire a man whose job was solely to make sure I always had bananas at the perfect window of ripeness. I'd never be without a good banana. I'd always have string cheese, because string cheese is great. We'd never run out of bagles and cream cheese. We'd have all the fixins for a great sandwich, all the time. I'd never have to slice the cheese, it'd be ready for me. We'd always have fresh tomatos, and always have lunch meet. There would always be a few chocolate products around, but never too accessible. They'd be hidden away, but I'd know where they are. The trick would be making them inconvenient to get to, so I wouldn't eat them all. Of course, being a billionaire, I could never eat them all, they'd just keep coming back.

But most importantly, we'd never run out of bananas. Bananas are the perfect fruit. The world would be a better place if we all ate some more bananas.

Ok, enough of that billionaire business. I've rediscovered chocolate milk, and I love it so. For years I hadn't had it, but a couple nights ago I decided I wanted some, and I've had a glass of it every day since. I busted out the old nestle powder stuff from ages past, and surprisingly enough it's still good. It was sorta chunky, but with a little bit of a beating it got all nice and powdery again so I can put it in my milk to make it delicious.

This is getting really long. But this bothered me yesterday. I got a letter in the mail from the insurance company. The jist of it was "Hey, since we're the insurance company, we're not going to cover the OneTouch brand of blood sugar meters anymore. We're switching over to the Freestyle brand. This will come into effect on such and such a date. We'll mail you a free meter and some test strips to get you started."

So, not for much longer am I going to be able to use my beloved Ultrasmart meter. I figure the freestyle is going to be similar. I've only used one once, and that was at a demo at walmart. I wasn't impressed. Their main selling point is that it takes less blood to get a test done. Do you know how much blood it takes to test with my ultrasmart? Pretty much none. Well guess what, you need even less with the freestyle. However, it takes longer to get me my results, something like 15 seconds instead of 5.

The insurance company is doing this because freestyle is cheaper, and they probably struck a deal with each other. But here's the real obnoxious part. I'm going to have to move to an inferior meter. It's a crappy meter. It's not designed with me in mind. It's designed to make money, not to be the best meter ever. The blood is not an issue here.

When you poke your finger, you're gonna get blood. There's only two kinds of pokes. Crappy pokes, and good pokes. Crappy pokes yield very little if any blood. In order to get blood out, you've got to squeeze and squeeze like an animal, really hurting your finger. Crappy pokes suck. Then you've got good pokes. You poke, and more than sufficient blood comes out. You put it on the test strip, and then dispose of the rest of it.

Now, have I ever complained about having to give too much blood to test? No. That's the least of my worries. If you poke your finger, you're gonna get enough blood to test with the ultrasmart. You're just gonna use less of it on the freestyle, and you're gonna get rid of more of it on your pants or in your mouth or whatever. The blood thing is 100% worthless.

So, why did they spend money developing that when it could have gone elsewhere? I have no idea. In my conspiracy theory mind, I think they did it to make money. Because hey, dinguses hear "less blood, that's great!" and jump all over it. But really, blood is not an issue, and hasn't been for about 7 years. Why did OneTouch come out with that stupid compact meter with the gay canister of "auto loading" test strips that sucked big time? Not to make my life easier, cause it sucked. It was to make money.

See, that's trouble. It's all this political mess that results in me using a crappy meter. Look at me, I'm cheaper. I don't care, this is my health we're talking about. Will this make any difference to my health? No. None at all, but I like to complain. I don't care how much blood it takes, but if it takes more than 5 seconds I'm gonna get a little antsy. If it doesn't give me awesome graphs, I'm gonna be upset.

The insurance company is giving me the shaft here. Sure, they're mailing me a free meter. But I like the one I've got. Too bad I won't be able to use it for much longer.

So, here's what I need in a meter. I need something that'll fit into my pocket that comes in one piece. I need a built in poker for my finger, and a little place to store my test strips on the meter. That way, I slip that in my pocket, and it's always with me, I'm always ready to test. I don't have to unzip my little pack, and pop out the poker, then the test strips. Nope, it's all there, ready for me. That'd help me a ton. I could test more often, it'd be more convenient.

Am I ever gonna get that? No. Because that doesn't sell. The people in charge of the big money aren't about what's really best, they're about what sells. Less blood sells. The freestyle is going to save the insurance company money, so that's what I'm gonna get. Boo-urns.

wow, almost 2. I've got church in 7 hours. That's pretty cool. This has been a long post, but things are good. This is the stuff I've been thinking about this week. I've definitely thought about more stuff, but this is what comes to mind at the moment. I hope you've enjoyed this. It's been fun writing it, revisiting the important stuff I've thought about over the week. I figure if I had alot of money I could make alot more money. I'd make a good meter, and then I'd make some cool brain recognition stuff. I'd be unlocking my car doors and testing my blood in no time. So that's the way things are this week. Good. The future looks dang bright, thanks to the greatest generation ever. We're gonna rock, there's no stopping us. Shoot at me all you want, impregnate my peers. I don't care, cause we're gonna rock. At least a few of us, and that's good enough for me.

The Truth Shall Set You Free

,What's this? A post without a logo update? Yep. Aren't you lucky.

It's monday night, and things are pretty good. They're not super happy great, but that's alright. They'll get better. They're improving already.

So, I've got three stories for you tonight. The last one is the really important one, but the others are good too. I don't have too much else to say, so I'm just gonna launch into story one.

So, it's 6:10 this morning, and my alarm goes off. I roll out of bed, turn it off, and think to myself, "Good crap, it's too early. I'm going back to bed." But then the more intelligent part of my brain kicks in and says "You're not going to bed until you've set your other alarm so you'll wake up in 10 minutes. Good thinking Christopher." So I set my alarm, and go back to bed. Sleep for 10 minutes, wake up to my other alarm. I roll out of bed, turn it off, and think to myself, "Good crap, it's too early. Too bad I can't go back to bed. I'm gonna sit in my comfy office chair for a few minutes, then get ready for practice." So, I sit in my comfy office chair, prop my legs up on Andrew's comfy office chair, thinking that there's no possible way that I could fall asleep like this, oh no. I'd be awake in 5 minutes, eating breakfast, getting ready to go run my heart out.

Well, despite my best efforts, I had a very nice nap with the office chair setup. You'd be surprised at how comfortable you can really make two office chairs. But moral of the story is, I totally fell asleep again. I slept for a good 30 minutes, and woke up to the clock downstairs chiming 7. I'm supposed to be at the school at 7 for practice. I look at the clock, and my heart sorta sinks. C'mon now, I don't want to be a slacker. I just slept way too late to make it to practice. There's no way I'll get there in time. I might as well just go back to bed, sleep in.

So, with my spirits low, I crawl in to bed. I look at the clock, and it says 7:03. I close my eyes, ready to wake up at 11.

But then, from the depths of my mind I remembered what Katie told me yesterday. Something about me being so motivated, she didn't know how I did it, etc. etc. I thought to myself, "Look at me now, missing practice cause I was stupid and slept in late. Booooooooo. I'm a slackerpants. Some action figure I am." And that thought didn't sit well with me. I was letting Katie down, being a slackerpants. Sure, time was against me, but that just wasn't good enough. The clock still said 7:03. I decided that good crap, I'm going to tear myself away from this pillow, and make it to practice before the team left. I knew I had at least a couple minutes, they always do warmups at the track before they leave. I figured I had about 10 minutes.

In great haste I jump out of bed for the third time that morning. I run around, trying to find my shorts, and eventually find them in the laundry room downstairs. I don't even bother changing out of the shirt I slept in, no time. I throw some shoes on, run in and wake mom and dad up to ask if I can take a car to the school. My mom wakes up with a snort, and I'm like "MomcanItakeacartocrosscountry??!" And she's like, "......Yeah..... take whatever's out there." So then I run in and I'm like "Andrew! Can I borrow your keys?" and he's like "......huh?" and I'm like "Andrew! I need to borrow your keys!" and he's like ".....ok......" So then I grab his keys, and I run downstairs, and I grab two fruitsnacks to stow in my socks, and I grab two bananas for breakfast. I throw one down my throat before I leave the door, and chuck the peel. I book it out there, hop in the car, and I'm like "It's go time." I was thinking to myself, if I had driving gloves, I'd put them on for this. So then I'm booking it over to the school, following the speedlimit almost. If anyone asks I couldn't convert the metrics to miles per hour fast enough. So I'm like Do do.... chkachkachakchak do do DO do.... DO do. Making the driving song, you know how it goes. Then I get to the light, and I'm like "Curses! A light!" But then I realized that it gave me a great opportunity to eat my second banana! Which I did, with great aplomb. So then the light turns green, and I'm like "VROOOM!" and I get to the parking lot, park, and run out there. I make it before the team leaves, and Coach is like "'mornin Thatcher." And I'm like " 'Morning coach, sorry I'm late."

And that was that. I totally made it to practice, even though by all means I shouldn't have. Practice was super super good though. Coach's assignment for us: "You're going to run for 90 minutes. 45 minutes out, 45 minutes back in. You need to run at a 6 and a half minute mile pace the whole way. Ok go."

So, as it was early morning, I couldn't quite do the math just yet. I had no idea what was going to happen. None of us had watches, so we just decided we were going to keep running and figure it out on the way. After about a mile, my brain finally figured out that if we really did what coach told us to do, we'd end up running 22.4 km, or 14 miles. That's a little more than half a marathon. So, I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but I knew that I was really enjoying running fast. We weren't just plodding along, this was no distance run. This was supposed to be sorta fast. We weren't racing, but it felt great to get my legs moving to something other than the funeral pace. It might have been the adrenaline from having to rush to get there, but I was really really pumped up. I was just ready to go, nothing was going to stand in my way.

So, we made the decision that we were gonna run to gardner village and back. That would be about 14 km, 9 miles. That's definitely not the good 22 km we needed, but we figured it was a good enough start, and that anything more would be ridiculous. The whole time out there I was booking it, I wasn't sure what was going down. Everybody was telling me to slow down, save my energy. But no deal, I was ready to go. I knew that I wasn't quite thinking straight, I was way too hyper for my own good. I generally don't get too hyper on distance runs, but wow. I said Good morning to everybody we passed on the trail. I always say good morning, but this time I was super cheerful. I was yelling at people that were on other trails but that we could still see. I was just a machine. I ran fast, I wished people good morning, and It was just great.

So, we get out there, then come back. I didn't get to run as fast as I wanted to coming back, everybody was telling me to not be a dingus and slow down. I guess I finally started listening to them, even though I wanted to keep running. All in all, it was a super great practice, it felt great. My body thought it was clements. If I keep this up, maybe I'll do good.

But really, I'm proud of myself. I know that's a bad thing to say, makes me look like an egotistical windbag. But ya know what, I made it to practice this morning. I know that I made the right choice, even though I was about yay close to staying in bed. I mean, I was already there, I was totally justified. I had made the mistake of falling asleep, and now it was too late. But screw that idea. I'm getting up and going to practice. I did the right thing, and that makes me happy.

So, moral of the story is: Get up when you're supposed to, it saves you lots of trouble. Other moral of the story is: Don't give up, even if you're already 3 minutes late and you're in your pajamas.

So that was fun, I loved it. On to story 2:

Frisbee friday was raging fun. For the first time since Brad's departure, we had the really old generation show up. See, I've played with 3 generations during my frisbee career. The biggest generation was Andrew and Brad's, the ones that graduated last year. Some of them are still around, but most of them are filing off on missions. They've got skills, they're tight. Then, we've got our generation. The one consisting of me and kyle and levi and james and thadeus and shelton and Nick and Ninja and all those other stallions around here. Then, there's the oldschool generation. The generation that's been there, done that, and that are old. Brad's older sister Christina is one of them, and so is Booey. I'm not sure if that's how you spell his name, but he can throw a forehand the length of the field. They really are the oldschool though. They're a little older than all of us, and they're not in super athletic performance mode like alot of the guys we've got out there. It's funny though, because they've got all the technique and skill. You see these short old guys running around, throwing amazing throws, making great cuts. It's good times.

So, we've got 3 generations. They were all there in force on friday. At one point we had 26 people playing. We had to break into 4 teams, and do the cool tournament. We had two teams playing up to the side of the parking lot, and the other two playing down in the bowl. The two winners kept playing in the bowl, the losers had to play up top.

It was one of my favorite nights playing frisbee. We've always got problems picking captains. Nobody wants to be captains. We used to have a failproof way to get captains, but it doesn't work when there are newbies around, and since we've always got newbies these days, that has become worthless. So, we always fight over who shall be captain. I decided friday that what-the-heck, I'm going to volunteer to be captain. I know everybody there, I can bridge all three generations. I know who to pick to make a good team, sign me up.

See, I've got an advantage over the other people. Coming from the lowest generation, I know everybody. I've been playing with this same group for 2 or 3 years now. I know Booey, I know Christina. I know Brady and Andrew and Isaac. But most importantly, I know the rising generation, and nobody else does. I know Kyle and Shelton and Thadeus and Levi. Isaac has never even seen Thadeus before. So, using my crazy generation bridging skills, I decided that I'd get the ball rolling and be captain.

Throughout the evening we played 7 games. 4 of those were in the 4 team tournament. 2 of them were in the 3 team tournament. One was a warmup, and the other was the two super team match. I had to pick 4 seperate teams. I was always the last one to pick. When it was just two teams being picked, I took second pick. When it was all 4, I took 4th pick. I knew I was setting myself up for something good. Either we'd be victorious, and I'd sound pretty cool cause I volunteered for last pick, or we'd lose, and I'd look like a little cocky pansy because I thought I was tough and could still make it taking last pick.

Picking teams is always a challenge. It's a hard choice. You know how people play, but sometimes people have good nights, and sometimes people have bad nights. You know that certain people work really well together, and that other people can't stand to play with some guys. You know that if they pick this guy, you've gotta hurry and pick his little brother, because you can't pair those two up, they're unstoppable. You know if they pick little pappas, you've got to pick someone that can defend the raging cherry pick. It's all very political, and just intense. You always wanna make the best choice possible, and so you're careful. You know that one wrong pick might skew the game the wrong direction, and you're gonna get flattened. It's a stressful job.

Picking was tough, but I think I did well. I stuck to the rising generation alot more than I expected to. My plan was always to take speed and hustle over slower guys with more raw skill. Thadeus was usually on my team, and if I could get Levi or James I'd definitely spring for them too. Shawn Fairborn was always high on the priority list, so was little pappas. I went with a younger team all 4 times, but it definitely payed off.

Moral of the story is: We went undefeated for the night. 7-0. We weren't even the first pick. We were the last pick, and we totally took them down. Go go go rising generation, you show those old folks.

So really, Frisbee is just great, I love it so. We're playing thursday, 7:00 this week instead of friday. My brother's getting married, and it's hard to be at a reception and play frisbee at the same time. So things are moving to thursday. it's gonna be kicks.

Hey Goober, what are you doing? I just dont know

It looks like my guest writer has popped in. See, story number three is intense. So intense, in fact, that I don't remember about 80% of it. I was there for the whole of it, but I just don't remember it. Therefore, I've brought in an expert guest writer. Please welcome Andrew Thatcher.

Why hello little ones, please gather round for the story of the century.

It all started Saturday morning, our Mom came in and woke Christopher and I up and told us that we needed to take care of the lawn. It was eventually decided that Christopher would go out and mow and I would go and endge it and whatever else. So eventually Christopher goes out to mow at about noon.

Important to note is that I never ate breakfast before going out to mow. I had a piece of toast and some chocolate milk. I didn't do any insulin cause I figured I'd just work the carbs out mowing. So, I didn't officially have breakfast. I go out there and mow, it takes me about an hour, but I figure it looks pretty dang good. Andrew comes around to edge a little later. Once I'm done mowing, Dad says he's made us smoothies in his awesome blender. So hey, I go have a smoothie. Once again, I don't do any insulin cause I feel a little low.


So he eats his smoothy and while I'm working, all signs say that he crawled back in bed and fell asleep. So I work my tail off for about 3 hours or so then go up to the room, get on the computer check the news whatever and I look around and notice that Christopher isn't in his bed. I was a little confused, my brother had disappeared, so I ask Michael if he has seen him, and he says"I think he is sleeping." That was not very helpful, so I decided to go investigate. Once again I check and he isn't in his bed, so I go downstairs and check the front room counches, his next favorite place to vegitate.

Sure enough he is there, but he wasn't quite laying down, or sitting up on the couch, I would say he was at about a 30 degree angle with the couch, resting on his arm. Upon closer inspection I found that he had his hands clentched with his vial of insulin in one hand and his syringe in the other and he had a lot of fresh sweat all upon his shirt.

Now, Andrew's a smart kid, he nailed me on this one. I had in fact laid down to take a little nap when I had finished the lawn. I chilled in the bed for a bit, then something woke me up, I don't quite remember. I started talking to a few people online, then decided to test. So, I test my bloodsugar, and it says 216. That's alot higher than I want to be, and I'm like "Ok, I'm going to do two units of insulin to take me back down to where I want to be." Right at that moment, I started to get really hungry though, and I remembered how very little I had eaten. So, thinking fast, I'm like "Ok, I'll do 5 more units of insulin so I can have a bowl of cereal, then everything will be peachy." So, I pop in 7 units of insulin, then go lay on the couch to wait a minute before I go eat. According to the Doc, it's better to do a shot before you eat, it makes things work better. So, I was going to wait for my bloodsugar to get back down to where it needed to be, then eat. So, I lay on the couch to wile away the time. I must have fallen asleep, because I woke up knowing that my bloodsugar was very very low. I had slept alot longer than I expected to, and now all that insulin was getting to me. I propped myself up with the design of walking into the other room to get some food, but I never got that far. I never even sat up all the way.

So, he is sitting at 30 dgrees clenching his vial and needle and staring at the arm of the other couch. I wasn't sure how long he had been there, for all I knew he went in, did a shot and fell asleep right after he finished mowing the lawn. He did not respond to me entering the room, so I said "Hey budge, what's up." Surprise surprise he didn't respond, or move, or blink. I tried to talk to him a few more times but there was nothing. So I have been around diabetics long enough to put these signs together and figure out that he was low, really low. But I didn't know how to fix him, I knew he needed sugar, but I thought it better to get an expert in there. I turned my head and yelled up the stairs "Hey Michael! Come down here!"

To my surprise and delight Christopher actually responded to this one he scowled "Don't Yell!" With as much energy and hate as that little kid could handle.

Upon hearing my plea, Michael came down to see the freak show that I had advertised in my unwelcome yell. He sees the kid and says "Hey buddy, what are you doing!" while shaking his shoulder. Apparently this was as bad as yelling because Christopher mustered his hate and energy and spoke again telling Michael "Don't touch me!"

Michael quickly went into the kitchen to get some pears, while I stayed int he frontroom tryin got keep Chritopher awake. I realized that touching him actually gets a response and lets me know he is alive, so I patted his shoulder and asked "you still there bud?" You guessed it, anger; "Don't touch me!"

Michael came back with the bottle of pears and a fork and put a pear up to Christopher's mouth and said "eat". Chistopher responded with "I don't like pears"

Ok, you've got to understand that when your bloodsugar goes really low, alot of different things start happening in your body. First and foremost, your cells need that sugar and energy to function. When they don't have that for whatever reason, they sort of start to shut down. So mind you, I don't remember any of this up to this point. I might have briefly been awake for Andrew walking in to the room, but I don't remember yelling at him, or Michael touching me. My brain really was starting to shut down. The whole cognitive thought thing just wasn't there for me. The other thing that starts to happen when you get really low, is you get way emotional, and everything is irritating. Maybe it's because your brain is functioning less, but you're just an emotional basketcase. So, you throw out my brain, and the shell of me is just responding to stimuli. So, apparently I yelled at him. He shouldn't have yelled.

However, there are a few patches of this whole experience that I do remember. My brother Michael is a big kid. I remember propping myself up to the 30 degree angle, and the next thing I remember is Michael coming at me with a GIANT pear on a fork that he's trying to shove in my mouth. It's all a little fuzzy, but come now. You're sitting here, nearly dead, and you've got your big brother with a giant pear coming for you. So naturally, I tried to resist.

So he is sitting up and Michael is shoveling small pieces of pear into his mouth. Christopher is mumbling all sorts of random things and Michael says "It's funny when you are low you think that you are the boss and everything you say makes perfect sense" and he kept shoveling the pears that Christopher didn't like into his mouth with surprisingly little resistance. I went into the kitchen to check something then walk back into the front room to hear Michael say "Here comes the airplane" while waving a huge chunk of pear infront of Christopher. To my utter glee, Christopher in his dazed and bewildered state opened his mouth and moved his head around to follow the pear where 'er it moved despite his earlier protest.

I then dumped the excess juice from the pear bottle into a cup, got a straw and took it into Christopher. I stuck the straw to his closed lips and said "suck it" he sure did start to suck. He was downing it until there was about a thrid left, then he grabs my hand and pulls it down so the straw isn't in the juice anymore, but he just keeps sucking. I fix it so he is getting his life giving sugar water and he finishes the rest of it.

I'm not sure why, but he then decided to start chewing on the straw. I went to pull it out of his mouth, but before I could he just clamped down and would not let go. By this time Nathan, our oldest brother had come in to see the freak show, and mocked his feble attempt to clasp the straw in his mouth by laughing and making jabs at his mental capacities.

Eventually I coaxed Christopher into opening his mouth and letting me take the straw out so he wouldn't try to swallow it, so that disaster was avoided.

So..... the pear juice was chunky. I remember that part. I didn't like the chunks. I have no recollection of anyone playing airplane with me. That whole block was a gap. I do very vividly remember chewing on that straw though. I had no idea why, but I knew that I was chewing on it. Good straw. Just keep in mind, my mind is out the window.

Nathan, being very helpful, went down stairs and got our big fan, because Christopher was sweaing and looked really hot. Nathan turned on the fan and pointed it at Christopher and said "doesn't that feel better?" Turns out that it didn't. The mean little boy started yelling as much as he could telling him to turn it off because it was "uncomfortable"

After the fam ordeal, he was starting to get his mind back a bit and asked for a glucose tablet and said "They are in the drawer under the droor where. . .where we. . .keep stuff"

Michael interpretted by saying "they are in the bottom drawer"

I went to the kitchen looking in the bottom drawer and heard Christopher saying something about looking in a box and apparently some sort of insults to my intelligence

I found the fabled box and at the top found a tube of "liquid glucose" I took it in and was going to give it to him but he said "I don't want the liquid, I want the solid" He was a very honry patient, but I went in and dug deeper in the box until I found the five year expired glucose tablets.

Ooh ooh, I remember this part. I remembered how proud I was, cause I told andrew that the liquid glucose was gross cause it expired in '74. I was proud of myself cause I used numbers to insult him. I was getting a tiny bit of brain function back. I was still a little jerk, the sensitive part of me wasn't online yet, but I thought I was so cool cause I had used everything my brain had to explain exactly why that liquid glucose was bad. I was backing up arguments with reasoning here. This was a good sign.

Mind you the solid glucose tablets were older than the liquid ones, but as was explained before, "when you are low, you are the boss, and everything you say is right" Anyway, I took the solid tablets in and Michael said "man, those are gross."

Christopher retorted "I like them, let me have them."

I decided not to let him hold them because I wasn't sure if he was sane yet, or how many he would eat, so I gave them to him one at a time at Michael's council and he chomped them right down. And within a few minutes he was back, still a little physically weak, but his mind was back, still a little beast, but at least the words made sense.

And that is the story of me saving Christopher's life, with the help of my associates, minus Nathan, the fan hindered the whole process.

Let's all give Andrew a round of applause for saving my life and helping write this post. Yay for Andrew.

So, there you have it. What happens when I do alot of insulin then don't eat anything? Bad things. I don't remember more than a few tiny little pieces of that whole story. When I was finally coming back, I had no idea that it was me sitting there. I knew what was going on, I knew that "I" was low, and that "I" was being helped by Andrew and Michael. I had no idea whether it was a dream, or a memory, or me just thinking of what might happen in a certain situation, or if it really was me sitting there. I didn't believe that it was me, it just didn't feel like it. As I started to get more into it though, I guess I finally accepted it, but it took a while.

All in all, funny experience, but sorta scary. We're all laughing about it, but had I been home alone, bad stuff could have happened. I really made a stupid choice with that nap. I'm not going to do that anymore. It's getting really late. I meant to write alot more about the questions and stuff it's brought up. Maybe next time.

The important thing is, I've got really great big brothers that are willing to play airplane with a really mean 16 year old that can't move his arms or legs. Did Andrew really save my life? I think so. It's funny how close that was. I mean, I could have gone a little bit longer without brain damage or whatever, but it was dangerous. Not to get all mushy or whatever, but I could have died. How lame is that? I always thought that death would be a choice. Like, I'd be sitting there, with this gaping wound in my chest, and I'd be able to hold on, because my mind and will power were so strong. I'd hold on to life, even though I shouldn't be able to. Yeah, none of that. For all my running, for all my frisbee, for how good of shape I like to think I'm in, it didn't do much for me on the couch. I was just there, muttering really mean things about Andrew. No choices, I didn't even know that it was me on the couch for a bit. So yeah, good times.

The important thing is, Andrew's a stallion, and that's not gonna happen again. So yeah, I'm a mindless zombie, so what? Have a nice evening everybody. Hooray for being alive.

More photoshop

I like the way this guy is standing alot more, and I really dig the sword and shield. The color scheme is 100% screwy, but nothing else was working. Moral of the story is: I'm not good at this whole photoshop business, but I've got alot of free time on my hands. Look at me go.

Double Psych

Yes, I've noticed that I didn't post that good post that I promised last night. But, i've got something even better for you.

Behold! The second generation!
























I did that one in photoshop, based on my little MS paint sketch. The background is just a placeholder for now, and the text is going to be changed/moved/whatever'd.

The frisbee will definitely be changing, but circles are hard in photoshop.

However, I'm pretty dang proud of the little guy in the corner. Look at him go.

So there's the second iteration for you. Suggestions and whatnot'd be great. Anyways, that good post'll be coming soon. I'm even bringing in a guest writer. Score.

Maybe when you're older

This is the concept for the logo for the next year. Mind you, it's put together in MS paint, so it'll look better once I really get down to business on it. Important to notice is the positioning, that's how it's going to stay. Big disc behind, little short squat character off to the side. I want to keep the cartoonish feel to the character, but keep him looking cool. I might have interchangeable little guys to go in the corner, I don't know. But either way, that's the first computer concept, so there you go. More to come later.








In other news, this post is only here for two reasons. One is to showcase my mad paint skills, and the other is to keep you on your toes. There's a good post coming tomorrow, it's gonna detail the awesome frisbee we had last night, and the amazing adventure I had this afternoon.

But for now, enjoy the paint, and have a nice evening.

Necessary

I was playing around in photoshop, and ended up with that. Click to make it big, I sorta like it.

So, it's 9:56, way earlier than I ever start writing. But the fact is, there comes a point when you've just gotta do certain stuff. You can talk about it all you want, you can plan to do it, but when the time comes, you just gotta do it.

Tonight, I'm going to bed early. Oh snap. We all knew it'd have to come eventually. My sleep habits are terrible. I go to bed at 2 then expect to get up to run at 7. I come home and take a nap. It's just no good, I'm not gonna lie. Well, I tried that last night. Got to bed at 2:20, hoping to make it to practice at 7. My alarm got me up, I snoozed once, and after that it's a blur. I woke up at 10.

I hate missing practice, cause I feel like such a slacker. I don't really mind having things screwed up when I know it wasn't my fault. This time, it was 100% my fault. I can't pin the blame on anyone else, it was my bad guys, my bad. I messed up. So, that's the kick in the pants needed to get me to bed early. I've got to be at the school at 6 tomorrow to go run, so hey, I'm getting to bed early. Nobody's gonna stand in my way. This isn't like the last time I said I was going to bed early, a good 2 years ago. I remember, summer between 8th and 9th grade, I was so pooped from carpet, I was just ready to fall over and die. The plan was to go to bed super early, sleep forever. I told everyone about it, everyone knew not to even try to talk to me on messenger past 8 oclock, cause I was going to bed. So, 7:55 rolls around, I'm ready to go, I had even brushed my teeth. I'm about to shut down my computer, and who should log on but Tanya. Of course, this was during the heart of the Tanya era, so... I didn't get to bed for a while. Moral of the story is, you can't stop me. I'm not 14 any more. I'm raging, and I'm going to bed early.

I figured something out a while ago. I never really get anywhere. Destination wise, I haven't moved in ages. When I drive, if I'm the only one on the road, I'll go under the speed limit. I've got nowhere to go. Even if I'm late for CC practice, I'll take it nice and easy. When I run, I don't run anywhere. I always end up back in the same place. I can have an adventure or two on the way, but I'm never truly getting anywhere. And really, I'm alright with that. I'm pretty happy to just be out there, even if I'm not getting anywhere.

As for the speed limit issue, I'm alright. I don't need to be the first one there. I don't need to be the fastest guy on the road. I'm cool just chilling. I really don't like people that ride up on you, forcing you to go faster. Maybe they really do have somewhere to go, maybe them going 3 kph faster is gonna make their life a little better. But really, I doubt it. My heartrate is perfectly happy going slow, it's happy going fast too. I'm just a happy, content guy out there. So hey, slow down, enjoy life. It's not a race.

But if it was, you'd get the car trophy.

I've been giving alot of thought lately to specific heat. I'm not exactly sure why. It's an interesting property. We talked about it in physics quite extensively. For those of you not acquainted (not spelled right...) specific heat is the amount of energy needed to raise one kilogram of a substance one degree kelvin.

So basically, how much energy you've got to throw at something to get it to heat up. so, to heat one kg of water 5 degrees kelvin, you've got to throw 21 kj of energy at it.

Yay. so, why is this important? Why have I been thinking about it? Cause water has a really high specific heat. And Iron doesn't. Iron heats up and cools down without a fight. Water is a trooper. If you've gonna heat water up, you're gonna have to put your back in to it. On the other side of the coin, if you get iron hot, it'll cool down pretty easily. If you get water hot, it's going to heat everything around it up before it gets cool again.

So, are you going to be water, or are you going to be iron? Who am I gonna be? Am I gonna be a trooper, or am I gonna be a hippy that gets blown away when people stop wearing those rubber wrist bands.

I just like specific heat, that's all.

I think sweat is pretty good. My goal for this summer is to get one sweatring down to my belly button every day minus sundays. This week, I've gone 3/3. Last week was 5/6. I've only got 3 more days to pull it off. Friday is a given, considering we've got frisbee. Tomorrow ought to be easy, cause we've got a good cross country practice planned, and if that fails I can always play ultimate after summer seminary. Saturday is really the only wild card. We'll see, we'll see.

Ah, stuff is good. Today had a very rocky start, but it's turned up. It's been very humid today. I don't necessarily like that, but I can't do anything to stop it, so I'm gonna roll with it. The weather is going to come whether we predict it or not. I find that comforting. We can pour however much money into the system as we want, trying to figure out if it's going to rain or not, but in the end it's just gonna happen eventually. No matter how well we track the storm, we can't change what's really coming. That's pretty cool.

So yeah, I think I'm out of here. It's bed time. it's 10:22, and I'm gonna be in bed well before 11. It's been fun writing. I know this isn't one of my better posts, but it's too early to write well. I'm still proud of that little banner I put up there though. Hopefully there'll be more to come later. Sweet deal, I hope you're all doing well. Keep up the good work. If somebody'd please update their blog every once in a while, I'd absolutely love to have something to read. Alrighty, g'night folks.

Topwise

Long Overdue

The Pictures of the Week
(Click to enbiggen)













James, talking girl talk.













Kyle, ready to slay the dragon













The CIA never knew what hit them...












Levi saw kyle kissing a boy.

The Quote of the Week

"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered."
-GK Chesterton

Wow, bet none of you saw that coming. You haven't seen pictures in ages. Well la de da, here they are.

I'm trying something out here, seeing how Writely works out for me. It's an experiment, if it sucks, I'll not do it anymore. If it doesn't suck, score it.

Now that the pictures and that jazz are out of the way, I wanna give Kudos where Kudos are deserved. Mind you, these aren't charity Kudos. These aren't "most improved" Kudos. Most people won't ever get kudos. I still love them, I just don't give them Kudos. These are the real deal. Here come the kudos.

Kudos #1: Glen the Techie:

Very few people have actually seen Glen the Techie. He only appears at the exact moment he is needed. He's not one to hang around and socialize. He's all secretive, but when the world needs him, he'll pop out, save the universe, then end the transmission. He's mysterious, but he's got the skills.

Glen the Techie was the man from downstairs whenever we played a TV game for nerds last year. He's like, KUED's tech man. I'm pretty sure he lived in his office, and he wore a cool baseball cap. This was about the same time I was embroiled in all the stage crew slavery for Sharpe, so I had great respect for tech men. Whenever there was a problem, or something wasn't working, he'd switch the transmission from whatever we were currently seeing on the little projector, to his face. I assume he was using a webcam or something. But he'd totally take over, and we'd see past his techie face, into his lair. It was a mess of awesome cords and other such cool stuff. He was upbeat, he had mad haxxor skills, and he wore a cool hat. I wanna invite him to a barbecue.

Angry Lady from washington: "There's a huge delay, something is lagging somewhere."
Glen (Cutting in): "I've traced the signal all the way from here to washington, and it's crystal clear and strong, the holdup is coming from your building."
Me: "Techie Glen OWNAGE!"

So, here's to you, Glen the Techie. We haven't forgotten the services rendered. Keep up the good work, you're an inspiration to us all. Maybe next time, when the world needs your help, we'll get a glimpse of your glory.

Kudos #2: Hai Ho

The Cross Country team's token asian. He's a trooper. He just doesn't stop. He hasn't been running for too long, but he just doesn't quit. He's ALWAYS there. Always ready. He's got the skills. To Hai Ho, kudos, hang in there.

Kudos #3: Ms. Ward

One of the best English teachers I've ever had, and I've had some good English teachers. She knows what she's doing. Sure, sometimes she looks like she needs a little medication, but she always gets us thinking. She really just knows her stuff. It's no guesswork. She knows exactly how to get me to do my best. She makes me want to write that paper, and to kick that paper's butt. No myspace for Ms. Ward. No relating to us. She doesn't wanna be a student, she just wants to kick butt. Guaranteed she can outrun me in a mile. Go go go Ms. Ward.

Kudos #4: Ms. Peck

Another English teacher, but she gets the award for the nerds, not for the English. What can you really say about a teacher who spends nearly every day after school with the nerd team? She gave that her all. She put up with us, and made us amazing. It was Peck, not Jason or Levi. Sure, Jason and Levi had skills, but c'mon, they didn't wear the same dress to every game. Peck did, and she kicked butt. You don't want to make Peck mad. You don't wanna dissappoint Peck. You don't wanna laugh during round two, she'll swear at you. Peck really was just amazing. You've got to understand, for the three years I was on the nerd team, she was always there. Always with us, every step of the way. At every nerd party, at every game. At nearly every practice. Then, you've gotta think, she's been doing this for ages. For countless years, she's always been there. Always making amazing teams, always being nice to the nerds, giving them a team to be with. Making Theron feel cool, making me feel smart. I learned more from the nerd team than from any other experience in school ever. She's been doing it forever. I don't know how many kids owe Peck that 36 on the ACT, that perfect score on the test 3 years later. Peck's been raising champions forever. So, here's to you Peck, thanks for the cookies.

I think that's all I've got for now. There'll be more to come, but not too many more. You don't wanna throw kudos around too much, they'll lose their value. You can't flood the market. If everybody has a million dollars, it won't mean anything, except that bread is gonna cost a whole lot more. If everybody got kudos, it wouldn't be special. It's supply and demand baby.

Alos, I haven't forgotten about the Paint contest. Voting will begin very soon. And I've already got another contest brewing, I'm even more excited for this one than for the paint. So stay tuned. Well, g'night all. Keep up the good work. Have a great 4th of July, yay for America.

Metal Greymon

It's been a week since I last wrote. Wow, that's crazy. It's not that I haven't had time to write, because I have. It's just that I've been lazy. This week has been interesting, I don't know quite how I feel about it. Lots of it has been great, and lots of it has been wasted. If I could go back and do it again, I'd do alot of stuff differently, but that's alright. Mainly, I'd wake up earlier, and actually accomplish something.

That's the problem with summer, it's that nobody is telling me what to do. On mondays/wednesdays/fridays I wake up and go to cross country practice at 7 in the morning. After a raging workout, I come home, and sleep till anywhere from 11 to 2. On tuesdays/thursdays, I sleep super late, and then don't do anything till it's time to go running at 8 in the evening. The real deal though, is that I wake up, and it's just me and Andrew at home. Andrew has been working on the DVD invitations the whole week, so he hasn't had much time to tell me what to do. Mom and Dad are at work, Steph is gone, Nathan and Michael are at work. I wake up, and I get to choose what I do. Unfortunately, I usually choose to waste the day.

However, I did get a little bit done. Monday we ran 14.4 kilometers. Tuesday I ran about 6.4, wednesday was probably around 8, thursday was none, Friday was frisbee, and saturday was no running. I read harry potter 6 in about 2 days, that was cool. I went to summer seminary on thursday, and that was way good. Summer seminary is great. You should all definitely come. You get a good spiritual lesson, and then you get to play frisbee afterwards (Assuming enough people stay). It really is cool, you should all come. Next time is Thursday, from 10 to 11. Be there, it's gonna be kicks.

But, back to not running thursday and saturday. First off, I'd like to point out that I have a problem with slackers. Slackers and me don't get along all that great. I figure that if you're going to do something, you might as well make it amazing. When I write a paper, I rarely write it to get it done, I write it to push the limits of that paper. I don't mean to push the limits of how well you can write a paper, but push the limits to what you can write about. I don't want to do the cookie-cutter topics, I want to be so creative ms. ward is knocked out of her socks. When I do stuff, I intend for it to be good. I want to be the best, I really do. I want to be the best at frisbee, I want to the fastest, I want to jump the highest, and throw the farthest. I want to be the valedictorian, I want to get a 36 on the ACT, I wanna get a 4.0. I'm not about the 3.9, I don't want the "almost" award. I'm not going to come and give it half my best.

Go big, or go home.

And that's why I'm ashamed of thursday and saturday. Thursday night rolled around, 7:30. Time to get ready for cross country. I'm sore, because we did a hard workout wednesday. I haven't accomplished anything all night, I'm in a bad mood. Eating dinner at 7:45, I need to hury and finish then get down to practice. My legs hurt, my glutes hurt, I don't want to adjust what I eat and my shot in order to not fall over when I run. I stay home.

Friday night rolls along, 2:40 AM. I look at the clock and realize that in 5 hours, I need to be out in front of the city building to get all ready to run a 5k. That's not alot of sleep. I hurt from frisbee, and I'm really low. I keep eating, but it won't come up, sigh. I'm not diabetic on friday nights, but I do a shot anyways, and I always go low because of it. I hurt, and I decide that I'm sleeping through the race.

2 times this week, I decided to be a slacker. I'm not proud of that. Where's the courage, the heart, the resolve to do my best? Why am I out there, if I'm gonna be a pansy and randomly sluff practice? I made a goal to go to every practice I could make it to. I missed it. I'm a slacker, and I'm not proud of that.

Moral of the story: Go big or go home. I came home today. Next week, I go big.

That's what's good about life. Next week just keeps on coming. There's always another practice to go to, another opportunity to prove myself not a slacker. Another really hard practice, another time to say "I hurt so much, but I'm gonna run anyways." Another day, another morning. Go time is always just a few steps away. It's always ready for you to take it. When the time comes, are you going to take it, or are you gonna leave it there for the next guy?

I missed it this week, next week I take it.

I went on a date tonight. Whoohoo! That was cool, good times indeed. I intend to go on many of them in the future. Score it.

Hmm, it's interesting how many people actually ended their yearbook messages with "score it."

So, this week I've thought alot about food. Mostly because there wasn't a ton of it readily available. No, it was available, it was just inaccessible.

See, in my brain it has begun to be called "Food Theory". Basically, all food is seperated into tiers.

Tier one food is ready to eat. You walk to the fridge, get it, and eat it. It's ready. It's string cheese, or a cookie, or a banana. No prep time, it's just go go go.

Then, you've got tier 1.5 food. It's tier one food with tricky packaging. You walk to the fridge, then spend a long time negotiating it into your mouth. For example, that turkey from Costco. Ultra thin slices, delicious, but definitely zip locked.

And then, there's the monumental leap up to tier 2 foods. This food requires minimal prep time, but it does require some. It may even need some assembly. One might have to add milk to cereal, or microwave a burrito. Still simple, but you must input work in order to output food. Tier two ladies and gentlemen.

Tier 3 requires instructions, even if they're little. If you have to check the packaging to find out how long you must heat it, it's tier 3. It requires knowledge, microwave prowess, and several steps. Mac and cheese, frozen pizza, whatever.

Tier 4 and 5 are scary. Tier 4 is stuff that in itself is nearly inedible, but after much arduous labor becomes food. What the crap are you going to do with a bottle of soy sauce? Pickles? That chunk of ham. The noodles, the whatever. The stuff you need to make a decent meal is generally tier 4.

Tier 5, is flour. It's just flour. It sits there, until you get a master craftsman who can change it into food. I don't know how they do it.

Mind you, I've had alot of time to think about food.

The problem with summer, and being home alone, is that there's not enough tier one through two foods around, and way too much 4 and 5. I'm not looking to cook a meal here folks, I'm looking to get in, eat, and get on with my life. I want a banana, but instead I've got a bucket full of rice. Rice, what is this?

So that's food theory. Yeah.

I do believe that I've found a solution to my waste of time woes. I hear that papa johns is hiring. This is good news. Monday morning, hopefully I'll go apply. Score it.

Also, for the umpteenth time, I'm gonna learn C++. Yay! I've started for reals twice. I've said I'd start at least 7. Honestly, I'm smart enough to learn it. I've got enough free time to learn it. I've got the resources available so that I could teach myself. It's go time everybody, it's go time.

Frisbee is moving along wonderfully. I'm improving my game alot, and everybody else is too. We're getting better. There is still a gaping hole where the old guard used to be. Brad is gone, and that means alot of the people he brought are gone too. Coach Farr and Christina don't come around anymore, and mama withers doesn't bring us half time cookies these days. Bouey is absent. Pretty soon, Andrew is off to Costa Rica, and Petey is off to Chile. The old guard is running away, and we're supposed to step up and fill the gap.

That's a big task. I can't be brad, that's crazy talk. He can run jump throw catch defend swat cherry pick dominate. Me, I just talk big.

So, frisbee isn't what it used to be. I don't go every week and be amazed. It's harder, it's lower quality, I'm not going to lie.

Is it still amazing? Heck yes.

We're getting there, we're getting there. In two and a half years, we're having a reunion game. The summer after we graduate, it's going to be old guard stand. It'll be fun to see. In two years time, can we get there? We've got alot to live up to, they're like legends to me. Either way, we're going to have a fun two years trying to get good enough to take them down.

It's a constant cycle really. It's been going on forever. The whole frisbee bit. This might be the biggest it's ever been, but probably not. People have been playing all through high school, then going on missions, leaving the newbies to watch the field. It's been happening for ages, and it'll continue to happen. What'll happen when the old guard comes back? By that time, we hope that there'll be a real rec league to play in. If there's not one by the time I get back, I'm writing some angry letters.

But, tangents aside, frisbee is coming along. Things look good for the club. I had some discussions with some people this week about what direction we want to go with it. Do we want to make it more exclusive, let fewer people in, and just be super high quality? Or do we want to let everybody in, and teach everybody how to play, and bring everybody up together? Both have their pros and cons.

With the fewer people, higher quality, things would be much easier. It's not hard to get 14 people to forehand. We could get super super good really fast. We could always have one game, with the same people, and a few subs. It'd be golden. But, then we'd leave people out, we wouldn't make frisbee huge, we'd just make it great.

With more people, you get a bunch of people that wouldn't otherwise play to come out, run around a bit, improve some skills. It's alot harder, and when you want to play, you've gotta have two games or something. It's hard to manage, but it makes it so you'll never be short on people to play a game with.

I really lean more towards letting everybody in. I want to teach everyone how to play, I want to give them skills that'll be useful for life. I want to get people so good, that when they're off at college, someone will fall in love with them because they're amazing at frisbee. I'll get a wedding invitation in the mail, and they'll have written on there: "You made it happen, you made it happen."

But, that plan has its critics. I call them Levi.

So what do you think? Comments would be great.

Hmm, life is good. I'm going to learn to program. One day, snake is going to fly. Haha, laugh all you want, one day. I don't know how, but one day. If I have to be rich, and hire someone to do it when I'm 80, I will. It'll happen. You just wait and see.

So, I intend to update this more. To tell the truth, I could post once a day, and I doubt I'd lose any real traffic. That was my fear, if I posted too much everybody'd be like "Whoa, too much to read, I'm out of here." But, after tracking my site heavily with Google Analytics, I figure I wouldn't lose too much. So maybe I will post more. Then again, maybe I won't.

However, I will promise at least one post a week. Even if it's worthless, it'll be there. This week was a slow week for blogs all around, but things are going to get better.

Ya know, I really want a digital camera. I love pictures, they're so powerful. When you get pictures and music together right, they're unstoppable. Anyways, picture of the week is coming soon. Score it.

So, review:

1)I'm ashamed of sluffing cross country
2)Lucky for me, go time comes around next week too.
3)Therefore, next week, I go.
4)Food theory. Tier one foods are heaven, tier 4 and 5 make me sad unless mom or james is around.
5)I'm going to learn C++
6)Frisbee is good, but old guys are leaving
7)One day, we're going to be the old guys. We better be good
8)Which to choose? A small elite frisbee club, or a big happy frisbee club? I say big, levi says small. What say ye?
9)come to summer seminary, thursday, 10 to 11.
10) I'ma update more. You should all do the same.

Alrighty, life is dandy. Work hard guys. I'm gonna work hard. I'm going to be faster than I have ever been during my whole life. Tomorrow, I'm going to be smarter than I've ever been before. Right now, I'm the best I've ever been. I've run more miles right now than ever before. My cumulative knowledge at this point is greater than at any other point in my life. If these trends continue, I'm going to be one fast fellow come track season.

Wow, writing always makes me happy. There's just something about it. Oh snap! I almost forgot something.

You know how all robots are made with a purpose? Sunny from I, Robot was made with tougher alloy so he could get the microbes to kill the bad guys. Guilty spark from Halo was made to operate the halo thingy. All solitary robots have a purpose. If you were to happen upon a space station and find a solitary robot, you better believe he's there for a reason. He was placed there for a very specific task. He's there for something, and you know it. Because you don't just put a robot on a hidden space station for no reason. You put him there to guard something, to do something. He's been waiting there for thousands of years for you to chance upon the hidden station and walk through that airlock. He's ready for you, waiting for you. With his help, you've gotta save the universe. That's just how it goes. There are no solitary robots on hidden outposts that don't have a purpose.

But what if you found one? What if you found the one, the single robot that was hidden on a space station without a purpose. What if you found the one that wasn't hiding the secret, wasn't there to help you save the universe. What if he was just there? How would that feel? There's always a reason for robots, but what if this one was the one that didn't quite have a purpose?

Where is this going? Is this some sort of parallel to life? No. I thought of it sometime during the week, in relation to someone I was talking with, someone that always makes me wonder about everything. I don't really remember why it came up. It was a parallel to something, I don't know what. Am I the robot without the purpose, or were they? I don't know.

For some reason though, it's significant. I don't know why, but it's significant. For some reason out there, to someone, there is one unique robot that isn't hiding the death ray. He's not the guardian to make sure you don't release the flood. He's not there to tell you the secret password to beat the evil snake lady. Somewhere out there, waiting for you or me is a robot. Calmly sitting, ready to say Hello. Why he's there, nobody knows. Why he's there, there's no reason. He's just there, waiting for us.

Not sure where that all came from. But it's significant I guess. Score it?

So howdy hey, I think it's bed time. I'm excited for tomorrow though, I love church.

So now I'm out of here, but I leave you with this. Make tomorrow better than today. Yeah, this week I sucked. I sucked as a runner, and I sucked at getting stuff done. Tomorrow comes, and I'm going to be better than I was today. I'm gonna run faster, harder, longer. I'm gonna wake up earlier. I'm gonna do something with my life. Tomorrow comes, what are you going to make of it?