Clovis and Teflon

More paint. I think I was pretty accurate on the details. I even included the green cover that Andrew managed to bust.

Today I was really really burnt out on CC. I decided willfully to miss practice. Probably a bad idea, but it's the choice I made. I slept till about 10:30, then got the first chapter of history 90% done. I read through it all, got all the events and junk down on a paper. Now I've just got to go through, put them in order, and put the important ones down on the timeline. Score it.

School is dang close, and I'm getting excited. AP physics? With Olsen? C'mon, that's just quality time.

I had a cat once.

So, one of these days you're gonna get a real post that isn't a paint sketch. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the sketches. Sure, you say that you can draw better with your eyes closed. Sure, you say you've seen squirrels with more artistic ability than myself. Sure, my girlfriend ended up being a 45 year old trucker. The important thing is that I'm trying, and I'd appreciate it if you'd keep your killer statements to yourself.

/Sniffle.

Ok, just kidding. seriously.

So what's the deal with cardboard?

I think that's all for now. I'm a tired individual. There's probably a good post coming soon, or something like that. In the meantime, enjoy life. Get your homework done, don't procrastinate any longer. It's go time.

Frisbee Friday is still going on. It's going to be alot better than last week. The last frisbee friday of the summer is going to be intense. It's not this week, but the next. I'm not sure what we're gonna do, but with any luck it's going to be raging. Alrighty, Frisbee club is still a go. Going to be insane good. I'm still not entirely sure what we're gonna do with the logo yet. Kyle gave me some cool ideas tonight, so I'll try that out tomorrow. Maybe we'll have a logo contest once school starts and we've got a club. Anyways, that's gonna be cool and all.

So, tomorrow I go to practice in the morning, and then go and work at Jolenes. Yeah, I'm actually behind the register this time. Every other time I've been moving boxes or setting up stores of whatever. Nah, I'm going to be the person who sells people dresses. When somebody calls, I'm going to have to answer, in my manliest voice: "Thank you for calling Jolene, this is Christopher." Yeah. I can't remember the last time a guy answered a phone at one of those stores. The fact is, guys don't work there. It's a dress shop, girls work there. Girls shop there. The only guys that ever enter the store are people that are married and are dragged their by their ferocious wives.

Which brings me to my next point: What's the deal with giant ground sloths anyways? I mean really, I'm more ferocious than that guy. Look at him, he's extinct! Whereas I'm still alive and kicking. Which explains why you should all go on a date with me and not with him. Cause he's extinct and all.

If I were a flower, I think I'd ask if I could be a hot air balloon instead. I just think that'd be more fun than being a flower. Hot air balloons can't do photosynthesis, but they do fly. Very few flowers fly. Only the flying kind actually fly, and that's more of a gentle glide anyways.

Then again, hot air balloons are sorta glidy and floaty as well. So it's really catch 22.

Ooooooh, now to the important stuff. This is where I stop acting like I'm crazy and actually talk about something important. The CC team is going a carwash this saturday from 9 AM to 12 at T-ville. It's 5 bucks for a car, 8 bucks for a truck or SUV or van. Now, we really need some fundraising. And I know you've all got people who need their cars washed. So hey, come support your local team. You know you want to. Remember, I give back to the environment. This blog is made from 80% recycled materials. 40% of that recycled material is recycled cross country musings. Therefore, you're not only supporting the team, you're supporting the blog.

Show your T-ville pride. Let me wash your car. C'mon, please?

Which brings me to my next point: She's going out with him? ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh.

unnamed

Click to enbiggen. This is tonight's post. Another sketch in paint. It evolved as it went. Interpret as you'd like. There's much that could be said. Perhaps it shall be said later. But by later, the stuff that will need to be said will be different than the stuff that needs to be said tonight. So, I go. Tomorrow I gotta work hard.

Tomorrow will be better. I'm going to work on history tomorrow, no battle. G'night all.

Progresso-blog

It's an experiment. If it works, hooray. If it bombs, well, Hooray anyways.

It's 11:10 AM, and I've been awake for 4 and a half hours already.

Right now I feel hungry, my right foot has a blister on the bottom of it in the most uncomfortable place, and I'm a little daunted by the day that lays in front of me. I'm currently eating a bagel, but it's not the best bagel I've ever had. Still good though. I just tested, and my bloodsugar was 150. That's higher than I'd like it to be, but it's alright for now. I'm currently listening to "we are the champions" by queen. Reminds me of the day that we were all champions. That was ridiculous fun. Nerd team was amazing. We were unstoppable. Do you remember the game against orion? Where we went 11-1 in the second round? We outscored them 33 to 3. That was the greatest second round ever.

Here's to the nerd team, one of the very best choices I ever made. It reminds us to play to our strengths. Why run when you can buzz?

Anyways, here's the current news. I've already been to cross country practice in the morning. We ran an easy 6 miles, but it was alot harder for me. I ran up at camp, but I didn't run enough. My new shoes are still getting broken in, and I somehow developed this obnoxious blister. We ran down to the freedom shrine, then up 48th to 13th and back across to T-ville. We did 10 minute abs after our workout, and that was crazy talk.

My next task today is to unpack the van from scout camp. We got home saturday, but right after we got home the angry hailstorm of ferocious death struck us, so we decided to wait to unpack. Well, it's two days later, and I've gotta unpack it now. I'm not too sad about that, it's something that's got to be done, and it won't take too long. I'm going to be wearing my old man slippers whilst I do it on account of the blister.

So, after I unpack, I gotta mow the lawn. Yay for the family life merit badge. In all my life I've never ever had 'chores'. My parents just didn't go for it, I don't really know the exact reasons, but I figure I've come out alright. Anyways, now that I must get the merit badge, it's chore time all the sudden. So, I've gotta make my bed every day, mow the lawn every week, and help with the dishes a ton. I've gotta take out the garbage wednesday nights, and vacuum friday afternoons.

It'll be good, I'm actually excited to do it. It'll be nice to feel like I'm sorta helping around here. So, I gotta unpack, then mow. Then it's homework time, and then we've got another practice at 7 PM.

That's right, we're on two-a-days. Morning practice, then evening practice. Morning practices are usually going to be distance, and evenings are going to be speed. Tonight we're doing hill intervals on the hill that goes to the pit. I haven't done hills on that hill since last track season. For a while there I thought coach would spare us. Nope.

Oh well, it won't be too bad. It's a real good workout.

So, this is the first of a few updates that'll come around today. For the numbers:

Hunger: 5
Happy: 6
Hope for the future: 6
Comfort: 7
Energy: 4

Post ended at 11:20 AM.

Post started at 12:04 PM

Hey again. The van unloading took less time than I had previously hypothesized. It went pretty well, I got stuff taken care of. Dad had unloaded alot of stuff Saturday night that I didn't know about, so it was cool. So, not too shabby of an operation. I threw all my smelly stuff into the wash. Look at me go, I'm all independent and working and stuff. Whoosh.

So what's next for Christopher Thatcher? Lunch, and then a fierce battle with my lawn. Maybe if I mowed more than once every two weeks things would be different. As for now, I'm off to scavenge for some food.

Hunger: 5
Happy: 7
Hope for the future: 7
Comfort: 7
Energy: 5

(Things are on the up and up)

Post ended at 12:07 PM

Post started at 8:56 PM

Oh hi, it's been a while. I just got back from my second cross country practice of the day. Right now things are good, but they haven't always been like this.

It took me a really long time to get to mowing the lawn. I sorta napped on the couch, but not really. It was a pseudo nap at best, very uncomfortable. I finally got myself up so I could make a frozen pizza then mow, and my dad called. He said that his car had died on him, and that I needed to go rescue him at the Mcdonalds by Eisenhower.

Now, that's all fine and dandy, except in the last two weeks, we've had 3 cars die on us. That's alot of cars. So, haha, I just laughed about it, and went to pick him up in the ever loyal minivan. From what I understand, that's what I get to drive these days, and I'm pretty excited about it. The minivan is a trooper. It's oldschool, it's got more miles on it than the coast of Alaska. Throughout this past week, I've silently been laughing, because the Minivan never dies. All our more 'superior' vehicles have bitten the dust, but the minivan plods on. He's like the little engine that could.

So, the best part was, Dad was going to go get the car that broke down fixed in like, 30 minutes. He was on the way to an appointment, and was gonna take it in right after. So, I take the van over to try to jump it, and that doesn't work. So I take dad home, he takes it to run some errands, then decides that he'll just take the van in to get fixed cause it needs it. So, Van to the shop instead of car.

Yeah, remember how the last thing was the best part? This part's even better. He takes it to the shop, and they put it on the lifts. We know that there's something terribly wrong with the ball joint or something, cause when you turn sharp and you're going anything over 15 mph, it starts rattling like crazy. So, they get it on the lift and start spinning the wheels, and they can't find anything wrong. They decide to take it out on a test drive.

Yeah, the front-left wheel came off.

Like, while they were driving.

Not like, lugnut got unscrewed came off.

Like, flew off.

Yeah, way to go minivan. You gotta understand, that was what, 40 miles at most after I had been driving it. I'm super super happy that it fell off on them and not on me. Go minivan go!

So, we've got vehicle trouble. As I rode my bike home from cross country practice this evening, my rear tire blew out. Dang we're good.

So, right now we're down to one running vehicle. Dad's car is in the mcdonalds parking lot. Steph's car is out at her school, wouldn't start today. The Van is in the shop. The blazer is in the driveway, immobile. My bike has got the blown rear tire. Score it!

Honestly, we're all just laughing about it now. it's hilarious. I mean really, that's like, 4 cars in 2 weeks. We've had car troubles before, but that's just too cool.

Anyways, things now are good, I'm liking stuff. I got the lawn mowed, and me and kyle won a game of warcraft. I still haven't done any homework, but I'm going to get to that soon. Moral of the story is, two-a-day practices are pretty good. I'd much rather have 2 hard practices in one day than one insane practice. Tomorrow is going to be super hot too, we're going up to one of the ski resorts and running to the peak, then taking the tram down. We're supposed to run for about 90 minutes, I'm excited. Hooblay!

Well, I'm out for now.

Hunger: 3
Happy: 8
Hope for the future: 9
Comfort: 8
Energy: up the wazoo.

Post ended sometime later.

Post started 10:04 PM.

So, nothing else has happened since last time, 'cept me and kyle lost 2 warcraft games. Man we're good.

Off to homework, whoosh!

Hunger: 6
Happy: 8
Hope for the future: 8
Comfort: 8
Energy: 7

I forgot to say when it ended.

Post started at 11:00 PM

yeah, I didn't even try to do my homework. However, I've decided that I'm going to bed instead of working on it. Because I want energy for tomorrow, because I don't wanna concentrate on it right now.

So, yea verily, I'm trading one thing for another. It's priorities right now.

I've determined that if I ever write a story that has a hero, his name will be Ockham. Or maybe Occam. But either way, it's gonna be pimp.

I'm tired. But I'm really excited for school to start. I did get my schedule, it rocks to the max. I don't have to change anything, it all worked out perfect. My locker is H-45, super nice location for me. Things are looking good.

Alrighty, it's bed time, g'night folks.

"As simple as possible, but no simpler" -Albert Einstein.


Hunger: 6
Happy: 8
Hope for the future: 8
Comfort: 8
Energy: 4

post ended at 11:07 PM

Salsa

Chips are simply a delivery system for salsa. It's the same way with popcorn. Popcorn exists as a shuttle for salt and butter to enter my mouth. While I eat at La Frontera, the chips are massive trains that carry the delicious and life-giving salsa to my mouth. That is all.

Wow, lots of write about. I have so much to say it's ridiculous. I always have so much to say.

Trouble is, I noticed this last week that people can only take so much. I can talk for days and days, but the longer I talk, the less important the stuff I said at the beginning becomes. Supply and demand. If I were only allowed to say one sentence a day, I'd have to make sure that that sentence was quality. However, since I'm allowed to say infinitely many sentences a day, they become much less important.

As the number of sentences I write goes up, the value of each sentences goes down.

I have recently become very fascinated with mathematical models of everything. I love math, I love the logic flow and the definite answers it's got. It sets down rules, and then plugs stuff into it to produce predictable results. I'm going to start modeling more stuff with math. More theorems, more such business.

Change. It's coming, it's heavy now. It's all over the place, bigger than I've ever seen it. It's a huge crossroads. Right here, right now. Here we stand at the fork.

Things are changing everywhere. School is nearly upon us. Things are changing with the scout troop. Things are changing with the ward. Decisions are being made, stuff is changing.

That's an exciting thought. Things are moving, and motion is a good thing.

The key now is to move in the right direction. Things are in shake up mode. There was a shake up last year around this time as well. Right now is the prime opportunity to sneak in and make the moves that you've always wanted to. Nothing is set in stone right now. If you've been a janitor your whole life, right now is the time to run away and start law school. The future is wide open. Nothing is written. Go ahead, change your destiny.

So, that was sorta weird. But yeah.

Therefore, here's the new plan. Due to the recent success of blogaday, I've decided to change the way things are done around here. There's gonna be daily updates. That's the plan for now. Sometimes they won't be very big, and sometimes they won't fit into continuity. But they'll be there. This thing is going to be stable. The key will be to write a ton when I feel like writing, but delay the deployment of those posts.

It goes back to what I postulated earlier. The more I say, the less important each sentence is. If that statement holds true, one huge post on sunday night is of less value than that same post spread out into 6 smaller posts throughout the week.

Now, this theorem might not hold true, in which case I'll switch back to the older way of doing things. But I'm going to try it out. It might work, it might not. Either way, it'll be an adventure.

I feel odd right now. It seems very late to me. That's probably because of scout camp. I always went to bed late on camp, but things were just different up there. So maybe that's it. I don't like being the last guy to go to bed, even though I am.

Anyways, it was Sunday, and Sundays are great. Today has been nice. Tomorrow ought to be good as well. I'm going to get some work done. I've gotta go to practice in the morning. I was at camp all last week, so I didn't practice with the team, but I ran a little up there. I swam a ton as well, so I ought to be a little better off than the last time I missed a weeks worth of practice. I'm excited to go be with the team again, it's a great little group we've got. Coach is super cool, the kids are all really good kids. I like those guys, what can I say?

Yea verily, there is a post coming tomorrow. Anyways, here are the big plans that are coming up, the one's I'm excited about.

1) Cross country work. Hard. I'm going to bust it out this week, it's going to be great.

2) Hello stomp. Thursday night, after all that registration business, there's the PTSA stomp. I normally wouldn't go, but Sharpe is the guy who's in charge, and he asked me to help set up and stuff. Therefore I'm going to be there, and I need you all to be there too. It'll be fun.

3) Homework. Got to start and finish my American History work. It can't be that bad.

4) Frisbee propaganda. We're going to make a really short frisbee montage. Sorta like a halo montage. Unforunately, since we didn't film at all this summer, it's going to have to be staged. Anyways, we're making the montage to help recruit for the club, which I am still fully devoted to. It's going to work.

5) School preparations: I gotta get ready to get back to school. It's gonna be so fun.

6) The Doodle Project. Once school starts, I'm going to be actively collecting doodles from everyone. I'm gonna find a budget scanner somewhere, then scan them all and throw them up on a blog. if I do this forever, it'll eventually end up as a portrait of junior year. Doodles are powerful, they reflect alot of stuff. All of my doodles last year were themed, they were based on what MJ was saying. Even if it was subconsciously. Therefore, I'm going to be stealing everyone's doodles, then compiling them, putting them all up. Sort them by date, by subject, by class period written, whatever. I'm very interested to see how it works out. So, be prepared to be doodled, then have those doodles stolen.

7) The Noodle Project. Similar in design to the doodle project. This one involves me stealing your noodles then eating them. I'm a hungry man.

8) More life theory. More theory in general. I think it's time to start putting alot more of the philosophy sort of stuff back into the blog. Why? Because that's how I feel.

9) More graphs. As I make more theorems and such, I shall graph them. Yay.

10) Get my eagle. I'm close, and I want it bad. I'm getting closer every day. Excellent.

11) Frisbee mad action. With the help of our propaganda video, we shall create the Frisbee club during club rush week. Mama withers shall be our sponsor, and I shall be the president. We will work out the other details in the coming week, but here's what you can expect.

-Training clinics. We're going to teach any and everyone how to play. We're going to start at the very basics, then move up and up. It'll be geared towards everyone, and we'll move fast. By the time we're through, you're going to be able to forehand, backhand, and have an idea of what a hammer ought to be. You'll be able to catch, play defense, play offense, and cut. It'll be basic training. We're going to make the sport accessible to anyone who wants it.

-Fitness programs. You've got to be fit to play frisbee. Even if we only have one meeting a week, or one meeting every two weeks, we're going to have a little workout at every one. It won't be too hard, but it'll get your blood pumping and increase a couple skills. By the end of the year, you'll be able to run faster, run longer, jump higher, breathe easier. Ultimate, this club will get you in better shape.

-Weekly games. We're going to have pickup games when available. These will be just for fun, just for recreation. Come play a game. Relaxed

-The Taylorsville Invitational. We will find every 'team' out there that we can, and on one Friday invite them to come down to T-ville and play. We'll see how many we can get. We'll try to find high school club teams, and invite them to come play. If possible, we'll have a prize for winning, but probably not. It'll be a big event, we'll have a tournament. It'll be really hard to get moving, but I think we can do it. We'll have spectators, we'll have people, we'll have the highest quality frisbee you've ever seen. Of course, this is going to be the hardest to pull off, but it's going to be raging.

-Calling you out, Cottonwood. We're going to have a school club. Word on the street is that cottonwood has one too. If nothing else works, we will play cottonwood indefinitely. We'll get our best guys together, and then we'll send them a DVD challenge. Or something like that. Maybe we won't find enough teams for an invitational, but we can at least do a duel. It'd be so amazing, their best vs. our best. Mathematically, it should be twice as good as frisbee friday. Instead of splitting up the best guys among two teams, you have one team of the best guys, and another team of the best cottonwood has to offer. The most intense frisbee ever. We're going to call them out, just as soon as we're good.

-Social Support. We're going to have a frisbee club, but we're gonna have non frisbee activities all the time. If all y'alls wanna party down, it's great. We're gonna be friends. It's going to be tight.

-Physics/Chemistry/Math help. Free help to any member, from any member in the frisbee club. You can't say we don't stick together.

So there you have it, the frisbee club. My big project for next year. Cross country is my duty, Ultimate is my passion.

This next week centers around getting my homework done, getting the frisbee montage started, working on scout stuff, and helping mom with jolenes. Chances are I'm going to have to actually work at a store this wednesday. That's a scary thought. More to come on that wednesday evening though.

Here's what to expect coming later this week, in no particular order.

Life theory: Practice
Life Theory: Take it home
Scout camp story time
The dream field
Water day 2
I miss region dances
The Mountain Man Project

And whatever else I think of.

The future looks bright. The past smiles gently on today.

What do I work for?

For yesterday's tomorrow.

Chips

This is just the appetizer. I'm too tired to write a post. However, there is a post coming tomorrow. This post just exists to let everyone know what I'm back from scout camp, and that scout camp was crazy crazy good. Big post detailing that tomorrow and all.

So, yeah, it's been a good week. How's all your weeks been? I leave the valley for 6 days and things go crazy. Oh well, it's all good.

Anywhom, this is Christopher Thatcher, all tired and all. I'm the canoeing king of the world, that's pretty cool. Tomorrow is Sunday, Sundays are good. I've got a few good ideas for the blog, I'll roll them out sometime this week.

So, this next week I really gotta work on that homework. I gotta get some frisbee propaganda worked out as well. It's gonna be an adventure. There's a very loud duck/goose somewhere around my house quacking at us all. It's 12:16 AM, go to bed you crazy feathered animal.

Yeah, alright, g'night all. See you tomorrow. Maybe some paint for you if I feel like it, maybe some more story. Tell me what you want to hear, I'm a man of the masses. G'night.

cigam eonaC

Hey guys. I'm at scout camp. But I'm posting through the magic of canoes. More on that later.

As for now, some quotes that I really really like, with analysis.

"Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar."
- Edward R. Murrow

Perhaps my favorite of the quotes I've discovered recently, I really agree with this. The truth is, no matter how respected you are, how many people hang on to every word you say, you're just a person in the end, apt to make mistakes like the rest of us. Just because people listen to you doesn't make you smarter than them. Just because you wrote a book about war doesn't make you the authority on warcraft mr. sun tzu. In the end, you're a dude, even if people listen to you. Remember that, don't let power go to your head.


"Anybody who wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office."
- David Broder

Why would anyone want to be president? That much responsibility? Not for me, no thanks. I am a pretty confident person, I'll be the first to admit. I'm an egotistical windbag, it's true. But really, I don't think I'm qualified to run this country. It'd take a seriously confident person to be willing to compete for that responsibility. Anyone who thinks they're that good is probably a little crazy anyways. However, I do have loads of respect for all the presidents that we've had. I'm sure they're all brilliant and whatnot. Yeah.

"Many would be cowards if they had courage enough."
- Thomas Fuller

You said it Thomas. This struck me. Sometimes, there's absolutely no shame in running away. Running away is a valid strategy that's been in use for thousands of years. There's running away in The Bible, there's running away in France, there's running away everywhere we go. The truth is, sometimes it's smarter to run away than it is to stay. In situations like this, there's no shame in running like a little girl. However, some people are way too afraid of being cowards to do it. They're too afraid to be considered afraid. C'mon guys, being a coward is a valiant choice sometimes, at least the way I see it. Therefore, don't be afraid to be a coward. Go Thomas go.

"All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance."
- Edward Gibbon

Everything in life can be likened unto running. As long as you're getting better and practicing, things are great. As soon as you stop working hard, you begin to degrade. If you're not constantly practicing and pushing the bar, you're going to start declining, even if it is ever so slowly. You can't stay the same. If you stop practicing, you go down hill very fast. Don't stop running. Take that and apply it to the rest of life. Don't stop math. Don't stop science, don't stop thinking and dreaming. Keep up the good work.

"The truth is more important than the facts."
- Frank Lloyd Wright

Take that one as it is. Think about it.

"If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
- Anatole France

Thank you Anatole. It goes back to the first quote. Dumb things are still dumb. Dumb people are still dumb. It doesn't matter if it's widely accepted, it doesn't matter if everyone is doing it. Dumb things are still dumb. Getting your tongue pierced is a stupid idea. Even if everybody does it.

"It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them."
- Mark Twain

Easy one, very true.

"Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before."
- Edith Wharton

Edith got me on this one. I'm afraid of what's been done before, I hate the unoriginal. But this gives me hope that there's a brighter future out there. It's ok to like someone else's idea. It's ok to use it, just don't plagiarize it. Build on it, grow with it. They keep improving the airplane, but the wright brothers are dead. Way to steal their idea boeing, nice one.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
- Soren Kierkegaard

ecivda doog.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."
- Richard Feynman

Perfect example: The legacy highway. Delayed forever for some wetlands, some environmentalists. Now, I'm all for preserving our environment, that's very important. But c'mon, I think this thing is necessary, it's gonna make everyone's life easier. So where does the trade off become fair? Where do we stop and say "ok, it's time to go for public relations and ax the improved coat rack." When do we get to say "See you later Castro, i can hang 40% more coats on this thing."

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."
- Mahatma Gandhi

You've got to appreciate Gandhi. He's just so pimp. He's oldschool, genuinely valiant. Never one to fight, never one to be the bad guy. He got things done old school, the classics. Gandhi is amazing. He speaks the truth in this one. No single raindrop is responsible for the storm. Whether it fell or not wouldn't change the outcome of the flood, my basement is still filled with mud. But then again, if no raindrops are responsible, where does the flood come from? oh right, the raindrops.

"Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities."
- Aldous Huxley

Well stated Aldous. Couldn't have put it better myself.

"Go big or go home."
- oldschool (I don't know)

We didn't come here to lose. We didn't come to be a bunch of pansies. We didn't come to go home without giving our all out there. Really, there's no reason to give anything but our best. I really believe that. If you're going to do it, give it 100%. You can't get away with only 90%. If you're gonna do it, you better do it. Go big or go home. No halfways. No almost's. No sorta's. It's go time.

"When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion."
- Abraham Lincoln

Brilliant man that Abraham Lincoln was. What is it that makes this statement so universally applicable to us all? Why is it that we truly do feel good when we do good? That one's up to you to decide, but either way, Honest Abe knew what he was talking about. Guaranteed, when you do good, you feel good. When you do bad, you feel bad. Guaranteed.

"It's not what you look like when you're doing what you're doing, it's what you're doing when you look like you're doing what you're doing."
- Express Yourself - Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

A winding sentence. My second favorite quote on here, it came from a song. What you look like doesn't matter, what they think doesn't matter. What matters is what you're doing. Are you doing what's right, or what's wrong? That's the important question. Anything else is trivial really.

So there you have it. I hope everything is well back in the valley. Chances are scout camp is going well. Things are crazy, but good. Good luck everybody, I'll see you all later.

Blogaday day 8: Life Theory part I

Day 8. Score it.

It's 1:31, terribly late. Why am I writing? Because I like it.

So, this one won't be too terribly long for you guys, but I think it's going to be quality. I'm going to start a new segment on this here blog, and it's going to be called life theory. The plan is to document and talk about the philosophies that are really big and important in my life. The ones that affect the way I make decisions. Hopefully they'll be deep, it'll be interesting to write about them for me at least. I'll add more as life goes on, it'll come every once in a while. Because of the way I am, they'll have alot of religious ideas behind them. You're just gonna have to live with it.

First off, I make no apologies for this stuff. The reason that the philosoblog is no longer in use is because I hated how arrogant I sounded on it. Like I was so certain of everything. Well, I know now that I don't know everything, I'm trying to be a little more "this is what I think..." instead of "this is how it is." However, this stuff is reverting back to the way things are, not how I think they are. So, keep that in mind, I'm not trying to be a dictator, it's just easier to write that way.

You guys are free to disagree with any and everything I write. Just know that this stuff goes deep in me. It's not just something that I sorta think, it's what governs alot of choices that I make. So, without further ado, I give you Life Theory number one: The right choice.

I think life is all about choices. That's the one thing we've always got, choices. In the end, choices are the one thing nobody can take away. When you're 60, you might have a great car, or you might have a crappy car cause your boss laid you off. You might have a great set of teeth, or you might have been poisoned by a spy. In the end though, it's not your teeth that are going to matter, or you car. It's your choices. Why? Because choices are fair.

To make things easier, I'm going to classify two types of choices in our lives. One is going to be direction choices; choices that change the direction of our lives. The choice for me to run cross country definitely changed the direction of my life. The choice to join the swim team, had I taken it, would have changed my life as well. Both of those choices are great choices to make. I'd suggest them to anyone.

The second type of choice is a maintenance choice. These are choices that you face everyday, and are based on the directional choices that you have made in life earlier. Examples would be "go to practice, or not go to practice." or, "eat the peanut butter and jelly, or eat the ham." They're easier choices, littler choices, and generally overlooked.

The main difference between the two is that with a maintenance choice, I believe that there is always a best choice, whereas with a directional there might not be. Cross country vs. swim will make a huge difference in my life, but they're both going to be good for me. Go to practice vs. not go to practice, well, go to practice will make my life better.

Now that that's taken care of, on to some real business.

I believe that there is always a best choice to be made in maintenance choices. Even if it is a trivial thing like what to eat, you can always make a good choice, a medium choice, and a bad choice. Sometimes medium isn't in there, but the point still stands. You can always choose the healthier food, the better idea, the safer route.

I also believe that every time we make that 'best' decision, our life is better for it. Every time that I choose to go to practice instead of not going to practice, things get a little bit better for me.

On the flipside, I believe that when we make the 'less good' choice, we don't necessarily have terrible consequences, but we lose whatever good things would have come from making the 'best' choice. It's not a "you're gonna die if you don't go to practice." It's more of a "You're not going to have that extra kick if you don't go to practice."

So, what does this really boil down to?

According to what I believe, in order to have the best life, one should always strive to make the best choices. The great thing is, I believe that we all know what's right and what's wrong, I think we know it deep down. Therefore, if we could always think and know what is right and what is wrong, and always choose the choice that is 'righter' or better, we would be better off.

This also means that I disagree with anyone who says that life is going to be better if they cheat just this once, or if they go do this stupid thing so they'll have the experience to tell their kids. The way I see it, life is always better and easier if we make the right choices. Making the wrong choice will never lead to a better end than making the right choice would.

That's not to say that you're screwed if you make a wrong choice, or that good things can't come from it. When we make the "less good" choice, we generally learn from it. Truth be told, we're not always going to make the "right" choice, and it's our job to learn from the times that we don't. If we were to refuse to grow from making the wrong choices, we would cease to progress in our lives.

Yea verily, that's it to the basics. Is my life going to be better by cheating? No. Is my life going to be better by sluffing practice? No. Will life be better if I just do a crappy job cause I'm going to get an 'A' anyways? No.

You know that feeling you get, when there's the easy way, and it looks so great, but you know that something inside you tells you that it's for suckers? Well, c'mon folks. What's going to be the better choice here? The one that looks easy and produces the 'same' result according to you, or the one that deep down feels a little better? I go with deep down.

So that's number one. There's a good answer for every maintenance choice. Directional choices are different, they're much more confusing. I think there can be two equally great directional choices presented for you. I also believe that there are times when there's an obvious good direction and an obvious bad direction. Jazz band vs. Junior choir? tough call, both are great. Go to Youth Conference or go to soccer tournament, well, I say youth conference. But of course, that's just me.

I tell you what, it's alot easier to take this and explain it as a blatant religious deal. I haven't done that hear, if you want the religious version, ask me about it, we'll have a discussion. That's something I want to start doing again, scripture study with friends. We did that a couple times last year, and we had some good discussions. It's nice to be able to talk about it, because alot of times in social settings we all feel that religion is taboo. No Nick, this one's not for your benefit, it's for mine. Truth is, religion is a huge part of my life, and it's hard to talk about me as a person without getting in to the religious side of things. So, moral of the story is, don't be afraid to talk about religion. Don't be afraid to ask about religion, I love to talk about it.

-The end-

Yea verily, make good choices.

So, the end of blogaday version two. A pretty good success I think, no complaints. Not as much variation as I would have liked, I wanted to get a little more creative. But I still think it was good. It's made me want to write alot more frequently. I hope you guys have enjoyed it, thanks to everyone that left comments. Those of you that didn't... well, I like you guys too I guess.

Just not as much.

Haha, it's 2:15 AM. I've got to be awake in about 3.5 hours. Lucky for me, I had a huge nap. Therefore, I bid you adieu for now. Expect new posts tuesday and thursday. As for me, I'm out of here. G'night everybody, good luck with this next week. I wish you all the best. Cya.

Blogaday day 7!

What a day to fold.

It's late. It's always late. Trouble with it being late is that I'm tired.

So, here's the thing. It's day 7. That's the last official day of blogaday. But really now, tonight is not the night to conclude this. Tomorrow night, that's the real time.

So, you get a blogaday day 8. Consider yourselves lucky.

Yeah, I made a flower in paint. Why? Cause I felt like sketching something.

We didn't really have practice this morning, which thing I'm very grateful for. Practice would have killed me. I was so terribly tired when I woke up, I felt like crawling back into bed and dying. Luckily only 3 people showed up, and we all felt like falling over, so we just called it off.

So then I came home, went back to bed, and woke up at 2.

I didn't get the things done today that I wanted to get done. I needed to get done packing for scout camp, I needed to go riding, and I needed to go to a party. I did none of these things.

My ulna hurts. It got severely jacked up today.

Hmm. Scout camp next week. That means I'll be gone for the whole week. Lucky for you, I've devised a way to post beyond the grave. So, expect updates next week. How cool is that?

Wow, I'm tired, and tonight's been rough. Yea verily, I'm going to bed. have a good one all. G'night.

Blogaday day 6!

whoosh, just one day left.

This one is going to be short. I've got CC practice in 6 hours. Wow, need more sleep.

So let's talk. No reason for the small news. Swimming was real fun this morning, I loved it. The greatest feeling was when we went to great harvest afterwards though. Me, Selck, and Jared decided that we were gonna go get free bread. We hopped in our cars, cruised over then, and walked in. We felt a little akward just asking for free bread, it's hard to do. We're all nice little good kids who don't wanna be moochers. The task fell on me to inform the nice lady why we were there.

Her: "Hi, what are you guys in the mood for today?"

Me: "Hey, (Smile) we sorta feel like being moochers today."

Her: "Oh yeah?"

Me: "Uhh.... yeah, so we were thinking, that you could help sponsor the Taylorsville cross country team by giving us free bread. Yeah."

Her: "good deal."

See, here's the best part. She gets paid to be friendly and nice and give us free bread. So really, even with all my great smoothness, we would have ended up with free bread. Good thing, cause I'm not good at this whole "social" stuff. I really can't carry on a conversation with a girl, lets face it.

But really, it was great, because we had just worked pretty hard at practice, had a ton of fun just messing around, but when we were all done, tired, and beat, we decided to go get free bread. It was so great to just be able to do that. Without a worry, we just drove over there. Carefree as could be, we got free bread. For just a little bit, things were perfect. Standing outside great harvest with my wet shorts still on, eating my sunflower whole wheat slice with butter and honey. It was overcast outside, I love overcast. A slight breeze, making jokes with Selck and Jared. It was really good times, I loved it.

Sometimes things like that just happen. Where life is all the sudden perfect for a little bit. Maybe you don't really realize it right at the time, but nothing is wrong right then. You're just happy to be alive. You breathe a little deeper, smile for just a little longer. Things are perfect standing outside great harvest, tired legs and lungs, wet shorts and wet hair, that slight little breeze playing along your ankles. I just wanna breathe it in, it was great.

So that's my inspirational idea of the day. Sometimes things are just perfect. A little bit later they're not gonna be, and that's ok. You've just gotta love and appreciate those moments for what they are. You can't really try to make them last longer than they're supposed to. But it's a nice little gift, use it, love it, and remember it.

Mmmmmmmm.

Frisbee tonight was good, it was a different night though. It was windy, and wind does weird things. Some people play better, some people play worse. I play worse.

Some people had great nights, others had harder nights. Everybody has hard nights though. It's sorta just what happens. Sometimes your throws just don't work, and that's alright. You accept it, move on. It beats you up, but you know that there's always going to be next week. There's always another chance to redeem yourself.

I love how many people love frisbee. I remember in Junior high I was always trying to get people together to come play. It never really worked out, we weren't good. I felt like i was trying to force it on everybody, all that jazz.

And so I sorta felt like that a while ago, when I was making another big push. Trying to get everyone to come play, trying to make us great. I kept telling people to come, all that jazz.

But really, people are coming of their own accord. They want to be there. They love it as much as I do, it makes them happy. They look forward to it, they get their own rides to it. They show up after work, before work, instead of work. They're coming out of the woodworks. And it's not because of me, it's because of how cool ultimate is. It's a great sport. These people want to be there, just like I do. It's a great group of kids, and it's just gonna keep getting greater. We're always open to new people showing up, we're generally pretty nice to them. Sometimes we're a little mean to the locals, and I feel bad about that. But the important thing is, they love it too, it's not just me tricking them in to it. That's a good feeling.

Blogaday. What a crazy ridiculous adventure. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing. Ratings haven't gone up, that's for sure. It all runs together in the end.

There was an interesting phenomenon this evening. First off, you must understand that I love driving, especially at night. I love driving around when there's not too many cars around, and you're just going. You're not speeding, you're just sorta driving. You know that eventually you're gonna get home, but you're not in any real rush. There's nobody behind you making you feel stupid for driving slow. You're just moving along, and it's nice.

So, I'm driving home from frisbee around 11:30, and listening to the radio. I'm not too much of a radio-guy, I don't like the ads much. I don't like alot of the music. So I'm sorta surfing around, and I find one station that is playing the old school love song that they always use in the movies. Whenever they want someone to be dancing in 1960 in the movies, they're playing this song. So, I'm moving along these abandoned roads, cozy in my reliable minivan, listening to this song. And really, for the first time in a really long time, I started to feel a little romantic. I don't think that's the right word, it wasn't what I was looking for, but it's the best I could do for now.

But anyways, for the first time in ages I wasn't all "Love is a waste of time." Now, I'm not exactly all "love is a waste of time" all the time, but I haven't been too keen to run around searching for a significant other. The way I see it, life is pretty good right now, and there's no reason for me to go around changing that.

In short: I haven't liked anyone, or had the great desire to like anyone for a long time. Driving in the car tonight, I didn't start liking anyone, didn't feel the need to start liking anyone. But for a little bit there, I started to remember what stuff like that felt like. To shed off a few layers of the old bitter and lazy heart and feel good for a while. Sentimental, maybe that's the word.

Anyways, it was really nice. Cool music, good times. I really enjoyed it.

So what's the news? the news is that it's bed time. G'night all, this is Christopher Thatcher, signing out of blogaday day 6.

Blogaday day 5!

Is it really day 5, or day 4? I think it's 5. I'm too lazy to check, so happy day 5!

It's getting much later than I'd like it to be. Very recently I've been endowed with the realization that I need more sleep. I've finally been feeling responsible enough to go to a bed at a decent hour when I know I've got a morning practice the next day. It's been nice though, more sleep means a healthier me. Case in point: I should have been to sleep a while ago.

I've suddenly become a little bored with writing this. I know, it's only been a paragraph. But do you ever feel like I'm writing the same thing over and over again? I sure do. Never any new writing styles, never any new news. It's all the same in the end:

• Recap of frisbee friday
• invitation to next frisbee friday
• Cross country woes
• Cross country hope for the future
• Random thought of the day
• "but really, things are good" paragraph
• Some closing remarks

So there you have it. Sorta getting tired of it. Maybe it's just blogaday wearing me out. I need to think of something original, and fast. Maybe a little paint will lighten the mood.
















Sorta fun.

I was really lazy today, and that doesn't feel too great. I don't like being lazy, I like to be able to look back at a day and think of how much good stuff I did. Therefore, tomorrow I'm not going to be lazy. I'm going to go work really hard at cross country, and I'm going to get some history done. I'm going to play raging at frisbee, and not be lazy.

I went on a little bikeride by myself tonight. I really really enjoyed it. I went on the parkway, on some of the routes that we run alot as a team. It was amazing to see how fast I flew through the scenery, how quickly I got to the end. Runs that take an hour took me no time at all, it was a pretty good feeling. I went out just after sunset, so by the time I got home it was dark. The temperature was just awesome, everything looked nice, smelled nice, was nice. It was a quality ride. I'm gonna start going on more rides after practices and stuff. It's decent exercise, and it's just really relaxing. If anybody wants to come, what the heck, come along.

Why does America smoke? I don't think that we should. The world would be a much better place if the tobacco companies were all dead. Sure, it'd be a big hit to the economy, but it'd make the whole world healthier. I honestly believe that the tobacco companies are evil, I'm not going to beat around the bush. I'm sure there are some good honest people that work for them, but I'm really confident that the people on the top are evil. How else could they peddle a product that is ruining the world?

That's the next step. We've got to erradicate smoking. Little steps. Sure, smoking is a pretty big step. But really, the national guard has gotta go blow up some buildings or something. That'd make the nation's average lifespan go up 5 years. That'd make everyone smell alot nicer. We'd run faster. Our brilliant thinkers would live longer and think clearer. In all seriousness, what's the deal with smoking?

Oh right, it's ruining the world.

With no offence to smokers or whatever, don't come blow up my mailbox. Just, really, c'mon now. I don't understand it. I love my lungs. I'm never gonna smoke. I wish that our country didn't.

How about a little more paint?

















I sort of like that one. Don't know why. But it's an adventure.

So, the whole fiction thing that's been making the rounds has been pretty fun. I've enjoyed reading it. Until recently I've stayed out of it, but it's just too much fun to pass up. Last thing I wrote was of terrible quality, but I had a very good time writing it. Therefore, I'm embarking on a new little journey. I don't know how this is going to turn out. This is simply an experiment. I'm doing this for a couple reasons.

One, I've got a few more blogaday days to fill up, I need junk to fill with.

Two, heck, if I've got to write I might as well have fun with it.

Three, why not?

So here we go. Don't expect anything. But first, a disclaimer.

Most stuff sucks. Not really and all, life is still good, but most stuff just generally sucks. That's the whole idea. You can't have the good stuff without the bad stuff. What makes good writing good? Well, it's better than the bad stuff. What makes an athlete fast? he's faster than the competition.

So, most stuff sucks. When one of my friends makes something good, it's cool, and unexpected. The truth of the matter is, I expect most writing to suck.

However, everything I've read recently has been good stuff. Nick's saga has been intriguing, courtney did some really cool stuff involving chocolate, and what I've read of Jaron's was pretty accurate. To be short, I was surprised.

I exist to make them look good. Score it.

Water, day one.

Hey, I'm Paul. My name might change, it's temporary. My parents are.... weird.

I woke up this morning with a beard. A big one. For years and years I've longed for such an immaculate piece of face-decoration, and all the sudden it finally showed up. I went to bed last night looking like a pre-pubescent teen girl, and woke up a man worthy to wrestle a bear. This thing is beautiful, this thing is pimp. This thing makes me look oldschool.

Something is going on around here, something big.

Things just aren't quite right, today has been off. You know that feeling when you walk into a room, and everybody looks at you with that weird look, and all the sudden you know that they're about to tell you a family member died? That one piece of news you missed because you were at work when your aunt called? Yeah, it's not that sort of feeling.

Right now, I'm not even sure what kind of weird notion I'm getting. But there are some serious vibes out there, and my giant beard isn't getting half of the attention that it deserves.

I mean, c'mon. It's huge.

I showed up to school 8 and a half minutes late. I'm always 8 and a half minutes late. I don't know why, it's just a little more comfortable. As I walked to class, I was planning my triumphant entrance. I'd fumble with the knob for just a moment, let the class turn their heads expectantly to the door. With just the slightest pause for dramatic effect, I'd hold my breath, then rush the door open and reveal my new face-friend. There would be stares, there would be gawking, and with any luck there'd be a little bit of giggling. The plan was golden.

So I'm booking it along the hall, running my fingers through this ridiculously huge beard. Every minute I was getting prouder and prouder of this thing. For the first time since I had peed my pants in the cafeteria I was going to stand out. Things were going to be great with this beard.

The doorknob approached, my heart was beating like the drummer from the junior high band when he forgot his pills. I took a moment to calm myself, to prepare to enter into a new phase in my life. Finally I'd be respected. I'd be the only kid in school with legitimate facial hair who wasn't named Juan or Raul. I was gonna be known, respected, even feared. No more would I be obscure, no more would I sit in the back of the class to be ignored. It was time to face my destiny, to rise up and become what the fates wanted me to be. I was to burst through those doors, stare my lame and frequent bed-wetting past in the face and say to it: "Hey Jerk, I've got a beard, girls know my name. I'm through with you, I'm moving on to glorious golden pastures. Fast cars, free meals, and facial hair."

I realized then that this was a big step for me. Free meals? I didn't doubt it, a beard of this magnitude hadn't been seen in Forthwood county since 1832. My heaven-sent neck protection was going to change the way this town was run. It was going to clean up this joint. I could be mayor, I could be manager of the arctic circle. Things were about to change.

I gave the doorknob the premeditated quiver. A pause that seemed to last for eternity, and when I could stand it no more, I gave it another preliminary tease. My heartrate, erratic and unsteady as the attention-spanless percussionist shot through the roof. A deep breath.

It was time to face my destiny.

A power not my own thrust the door aside. I was bathed with the glorious shimmer of the florescent light tubes that adorned the chemistry room. Framed in the doorway I stood, my sleek beard sending dazzling reflections on the walls. I needed no bling, for I was bling incarnate. There I was, prepared to lead my people to freedom. To deliver the oppressed, to rise up and ascend the throne. I was graceful, I was strong, I was steady. My pose was impeccable, my entrance flawless.

The dull thud of oak door on rubber stopper echoed through the silent classroom. With a stunning flick I turned my head from it's heavenward pose to inspect my soon to be subjects. I knew that once they saw the new me, they'd fall in love instantly. Heck, I knew that I had. This beard had a hold of me, it was all I thought about. They'd respect and fear this beard, it'd be revered. That's why things are fishy today, because what happened next just really blows.

Perhaps it was a trick of the light, perhaps the world just wasn't ready for me and my beauty. I turned, and they weren't even looking. They were like, staring at their desks. Doing stuff, or something, I don't even know. And I'm there, in the doorway, and at this point my beard is honestly blowing in the wind. How cool is that? Can your facial hair blow in the wind? No. Just no, don't even try, cause it's too cool for you. I was brilliant, I swear I was glowing. My beard was giving off rays of excellence and awesome power. And there they were, oblivious.

I cleared my throat, trying to mask my obvious dissappointment and frustration. Who just ignores an awesome beard-man anyways? This is high school, nobody has a raging beard! This was going to change their lives! It was going to finally set their priorities straight, set their focus on what's really important; me and my beard.

They remained as they were, eyes on their desks. No recognition, no glory. No cheers? not even a gasp, a giggle? Nothing. Today was just like every other day, it was like they didn't even see me.

And that's why things are fishy. Because good crap, I've got a raging beard, and nobody has given me their number yet. No girls have swooned over this raging chunk of stone cold keratin. No sophomores offered to be my sidekick. Even the weird kid who always sits by himself at lunch didn't notice when I sat down next to him and purposely got my hair in his food. Nothing.

Man, this town is screwed up. Something big is going down, and I'm gonna find out what it is. The whole system is screwed up this morning. Vibes? Up the wazoo! Nobody paying attention to the new facial improvements? Hello, that's crazy talk. This whole place is messed.

/sob.

-Paul

Haha, that was fun. To be continued tomorrow. Score it!

Blogaday day 4!

Victory is mine. Sort of.

This morning's practice was intense. Remember how I was gonna make it so we only ran 8-400's instead of 12? Yeah, coach won out on that one, we ran 12.

But really now, I ran 12. I didn't just run 8, I didn't have to stop, I ran all 12, and I kicked their butts. I ran my first in 70 seconds, and kept my times for the rest of them somewhere between that and 76. I'm pretty happy with that, I ran really stable for all 12. I got it done. I did it, I survived.

I even got a cool badge.

















sweet huh?

I love paint. It's just something I like to mess around with. Yay for paint.

I really have no ideas for blogaday. So, maybe it's time to get some of my older ideas down on paper. Here goes some random crap that nobody's gonna be too interested in, but that I might have fun writing.

So, the whole net neutrality stuff got blown down. The legislation passed/didn't pass, whichever one means that the big companies can be tyrants. In all honesty, I don't think that that is going to happen, but it's still a fear that alot of people have. Yea verily, here's the worst case scenario, with a great opportunity for me to dominate.

oh gosh, I'm way too lazy to write it out. Basically, things are going to have to start becoming mesh networks. Since wireless networks are finally a valid possibility, this can finally start happening. A mesh network is a network with no identifiable center. Each computer is connected to the computers adjacent to it. Those computers are in turn connected to the ones next to them. That way, to get a message from my computer to the computer downstairs, I don't send it straight downstairs, I send it to the computer that is halfway downstairs, and then that one sends it on down to the one all the way downstairs. Get it?

It's like standing in a big circle holding hands. You can't hold hands with the guy that's 8 people away from you, but if you're holding hands with the girl next to you, and they're holding hands with the person that is holding hands with that original guy, it's pretty much the same thing.

Basically, mesh networks are the future. I want to see vehicles beginning to operate with mesh networks. Sure, we can satellite link our big SUV to some server in taiwan that's gonna feed out roadmaps for us, but what about that other car on the highway? Why can't me and him bounce messages off each other? why can't I see his position on a heads-up-display?

See, I think that's where this is really going to take off. Imagine a highway where every car had essentially a wireless network hookup. Every car can beam and recieve messages. Trouble with this is that wireless connections don't go very far. I couldn't hook up to a hotspot most of the time, so I'd be internetless. Trouble right?

Well, sure, but not really. I can't shoot a beam all the way to the nearest hotspot, but I can shoot far enough to talk to the SUV that's riding my tail. I can get his location, or send him a fun radio message if I'd like. The more cars there are around, the more cars I can talk to. I'm constantly bouncing signals off of all the cars around me, and they are sending signals right back. We're all connected, just by ourselves. We don't have to be hooked up to the giant 'series of tubes' that is the internet, we can create our own local mesh network.

Imagine I-215 in the morning. If everybody had the mesh setup, I could bounce a message from here to downtown in no time. Guaranteed there's a hotspot somewhere between here and there. I need directions from google, I don't have to get beamed up to a satellite to get them. I just need to bounce a signal from me to the car that's a quarter mile ahead of me. That car then bounces that signal further, and another car gets it and sends it. We finally reach the car with the hotspot access, he gets the info and bounces it back.

The great thing about mesh networks is that they're flexible. One car goes out, the network just keeps on chugging. There is no central node. You're connected as long as you're next to somebody. On the highways of life, that'd be a great thing to be.

You could see everybody else, find out what traffic is like by looking at all the red dots on the little screen. If for some reason you need to talk to that guy who's tailing you, go for it, send him a message.

That's just my thinking. I think stuff is going to start to become alot more mesh-oriented. I don't need to know about the kid in pakistan. I need to be able to send a message to my brothers computer, even if google is down.

That didn't make as much sense as it should have. There used to be a huge and crazy political story behind it all. Maybe one day it'll come back, who knows.

Fidel castro just had surgery and gave command of Cuba to his brother Raul for a little bit. What does this mean? It means he's an old man who runs a country. He's sorta a lamewad. Dude, give your people toilet paper.

Speaking of running a country, there's a pretty cool game a couple of us are playing online these days. It's text based, and doesn't take much time at all. It's a persistent world where you basically run a country. You don't do too much, but you're faced with an issue every day, and how you choose to react to it influences the way that your country will evolve. It's really pretty interesting business, it'd be fun to have everybody playing it to see how all our countries would be different. Anyways, it's http://nationstates.net, go check it out.

I have alot of ideas. Some good ones, some not so good ones. You should probably ask me about them some time.

So, steroids. What a joke.

Here's my theory.

Why do we compete? We compete because we want to win, we want to be better than other folks. That's the sad truth I think. We enjoy it, we love the game, the sport, the whatever. But in the end, I think it's us trying to be better than we were before, and showing that by being better than the other guys. We want to win.

But why do we want to win? We want to win because it means that we're good. It means "hey, this kid is good, he beat the other guys." We want a win to show that we worked harder, or that we're smarter or faster or better than the other guys. A win shows that you're cooler than him.

So, taking 'roids so as to win just throws the whole thing out of the window. Because then the win doesn't mean that you worked harder, it doesn't mean that you're better. It means you used the syringe. So, the whole basis for wanting to win, to prove that you're better, is now bunk because it's not you that's won. You didn't work for it, you shot up and got pumped.

So, really, steroids are a joke, because by using them to win you get rid of the reason to win. Go get a life you fruitcakes.

But then there's that crazy ethical question that someone posed us once. What about rescue workers? Firefighters, our armed forces, people like that. Should it be legal for them to be on the top of their game by using performance enhancing drugs?

You say no, but when your burning house is falling down on top of you, wouldn't you want a gorilla of a man to be barreling in to save you instead of dateless-Jim who can't bench more than 40 kg? The guy who's driving you in the ambulance to the hospital, shouldn't he be wide awake and alert? shouldn't his reflexes be like lightning?

And the men out there, fighting for our freedoms. Let's say that all the sudden we're invaded, ground style. While this is pretty much impossible, let's say we are. And we get to ground combat, soldiers vs. soldiers in southern california. Do we pump up the soldiers to win? Wouldn't we have an advantage if our soldiers ran faster, breath'ed easier, and shot just a little straighter? So that's the question. Sure, sports are fruity. But that's what I ask you, do you pump up the guy that's going to save your life?

I say no, but I'm interested to hear what you guys think.

Now, for some fiction.

It was dark. The night had fallen, and the trees were motionless. No wind tonight, it had been stifled by the blazing inferno that was my mailbox. The evening had started out calmly enough, but when the ninjas came... well, I'll let the piles of severed ninja appendages speak for themselves. My mailbox had caught on fire in the lamest way possible, not even cool. You'd think with a raging ninja battle going on in my front bushes that it'd be some awesome exciting story about a bomb or dragon or something cool. Nah, not even food poison, this is lamer than undercooked hamburger. Some dumb kids playing with fireworks.

Yeah, that's my life. The ninja's were dissappointing, and that's the trouble with all of this. Life just isn't fair anymore.

I wear a cape, it's part of the job. I'm better than you, and my mailbox is still on fire. Why a flaming mailbox actually stopped the wind from blowing is a mystery to me, but it made for a great opening line didn't it? Back to the cape. So here I am, and I'm one of those 'super heroes' you used to dream about. Yeah, most of the rumors are true. I can fly, but only for a little bit. I punch harder than you could imagine, and my boots make me 3 inches taller than I really am. I wasn't trained by any old guys with shadowed and conflicted pasts. I showed up and got the job on the spot. No rigorous interviews, no background checks. Heck, I don't even know who gave me the job. But here I am, with the job, and with the cape. I hate capes.

Not that I'm ungrateful or whatever, c'mon, I've got raging super powers. I wear shorts that look like they're made out of snakeskin. I can dunk a basketball from half court, I can take down an elite squad of ninjas while clipping my toenails. I'm freakin' awesome, and it's making me a little upset.

You've got to be a little jealous, it's alright. It is a dang good looking cape, even if it does cut off the airway a bit.

Hmm... I really ought to turn the garden hose on that mailbox. The postal service guy is gonna go postal on this one. Sigh. This whole bit is tiring. I wish there was a breeze, I love breezes. It makes my hair look really cool when it gets tossed around. Yeah, my hair is unnaturally good looking too. That's another one of those super powers I didn't apply for. Another one that I got.

I hate my job. Why? Because I win; every single time. I've never ever had to go to the gym. I never watch what I eat, I've never worked on my moves. I'm the greatest DDR player this side of the mississippi, and there's not a drop of asian blood in me. I've never gone running, but I know I'd beat you all in any race you wanted. I could be the boxing champion on the world right now; in any weight division. Sigh, I'm unstoppable.

What I do doesn't mean anything. Oooooh, I just took down 25 ninjas with cool black costumes... great. Did I work for that one? Nah, I just stepped outside and sorta let loose. It doesn't mean anything. Nobody sees the ninja appendages strewn throughout the rose bushes and thinks: "Gosh, he must have worked really hard to be able to beat so many ninjas!" No, they say "Good job captain dazzle pants, I'm an honest hard working guy. I went to school, I got a degree. I work hard every single day to feed my family. It takes me hours to do my taxes. My car is old and beat up, I fix it myself. I go to the gym every day so I won't die of heart disease. I'm a real person, I have to work for what I get. What do you get, cape boy?"

The truth is, I'm raging, and I didn't earn it. I've never had to work for this cape, somebody just sorta gave it to me. I win at everything, but it doesn't mean anything. It's not me that wins, it's the super powers. Just once, I'd like to have to work for it.

Dang. More ninjas.

Hahaha. This is why I don't write fiction. Anyways, maybe some art to go with that tomorrow or something. Anyways, I'm out. c'yalls, I hope you had a good blogaday day 4.

Blogaday Day 3!

Holy crap, I've made it to day three. That's ridiculous.

So here were are, it's tuesday night. What's the news? I played some mad frisbee today, that was super hot for a bit. Me and Fairborn were on the same team for the first game we played, and it was a total rampage. The teams looked like they were fair, but my team had all the fast young guys, and their team had all the old guys that weren't willing to run. So while they could throw more accurately or something like that, we just outhustled them. On at least 3 occaisions, we kicked off, and I ran down to guard the disc. Instead of just trying to guard the disc and get a swat out of the deal, I pushed his throws to one side. I sorta purposely guard one side hard, and leave the other side a little more open. They always throw to the open side, that's the idea. So then Fairborn, who knows this plan, has been lagging just a tiny bit on that open side, behind the thrower just enough to let the bad guys think he's not a threat. Once the throw is in the air, he pounces like a raging animal and gets a killer swat. He picks the frisbee up, by which point I'm in the endzone for an easy point. At least 3 points were fairborn to myself, a couple were me to fairborn, and a few more were just odds and ends. We finally called the game at 8-1 on account of it being a rout.

So that was frisbee, it was good times. I ended up playing in my jean shorts cause my gym shorts are all smelly. I sweat so much, it's ridiculous. I can't wear gym shorts more than once without a wash because it's just terrible. Everything is wet, I feel like I've been swimming. On monday, my entire shirt was saturated. Trouble was, it was a big shirt, that went way past where my shorts started. There was a good 7 or so inches that got wet just by capillary action. Good crap.

I figure the sweat thing is a biological advantage. I never ever overheat. Temperature isn't really an issue for me, I just cool off. There's the catch though, I have to drink alot more water to stay hydrated, and nobody wants to stand next to me. It's survival of the fittest really. Sure, I survive longer, but the terrific stench presents some obvious obstacles to passing on my genes.
So, cross country is all the sudden terribly terribly hard. We have our first race in three weeks. That's a terrible time for our first race. I am really beginning to wish that all my camps and youth conference and stuff had been at the beginning of the summer. I've got scout camp all next week. That leaves me with this week to train, next week to say I'll run but never actually do it, and then the week after that to get ready for a race. Since competitions are about to start, coach has shifted us away from distance training towards speed training. So, Monday was probably our last distance run for a while. According to coach, it was closer to 15 miles than 12. D'oh.

Anyways, tonight we were supposed to be doing an organized fartlek run. Fartlek is swedish or something for "Speed play". The concept is you run normal, then you do a burst of speed for a while, then run normal again. It helps develop your kick at the end of races, and just your speed over all. Tonights practice was entirely on the track. Coach would blow the whistle, and we'd jog. He'd blow it again, and we'd speed up to somewhere between a jog and a sprint. He'd blow the whistle again and we'd sprint like crazy. Once he blew it after that, you jog again, lather, rinse, and repeat.

So, that shouldn't have been too hard, but it was terrible. I sucked it up big time, and had to honestly stop. I never have to stop at practice, that's just not something you do. You suck up the pain, you wade through the terrible agony and keep running. Yeah, I couldn't do that tonight.

See, practice is at 8. I tested at 7:40, and I was 65. That's way too low to go running on, so I immediately went in search of food. I had eaten all the bananas earlier, so we didn't really have anything quick to eat. I searched around, still nothing quick. Sure, we had some tier 4 and 5 stuff, but nothing easy. So, I ended up having some milk, some tang, and then some ice cream. Ice cream is a horrible thing to eat before a run, it's just not smart.

So, I get to practice, and my bloodsugar is fine, it's on the way up. We can determine that the reason I sucked tonight wasn't pancreas related. Anyways, we're on the 4th or 5th lap of this crazy workout, and I just feel like I'm dying. Coming around the far curve, I thought I was gonna hurl for the second time ever while I was running. It was just crazy talk. So, I finally finish that lap, by now I'm hobbling for the jog part, the semi-sprint is something like a fast shuffle, and the sprint is unrecognizable by even the most generous eyes. I figure it's time to stop, so I sorta lean up against the fence, and tell coach that I'm gonna sit down for a minute.

So there you have it, I wussed out of practice. They only ran 3 or so more laps, but it was still ridiculous. Coach thought it was all blood sugar related, and so he was pretty worried about me. I don't really know what the deal was, but me and my body still aren't getting along too well. The idea of running anywhere from 12 to 15 miles yesterday, getting not enough sleep, playing a frisbee game, and then eating ice cream right before a speed workout just doesn't quite add up to a good performance.

Either way, I did most of the workout I suppose, and coach didn't give me any grief cause he thought I was gonna die.

Tomorrow morning is 400 repeats. 400 repeats are probably the worst workouts ever. They're crazy hard. I love the 400 meter race, but the repeats are ridiculous. You run one, trying to keep your time somewhere around 65 seconds. You get anywhere from 1.5 minutes to 2 minutes rest, and then you do it again. You're expected to keep your time at or under 65 seconds. It's crazy talk.

Coach says we're doing 12 tomorrow morning. I say we're doing 8. We'll see who wins.

If anybody asks, my bloodsugar is low.

Just kidding, I'd never use that excuse to get out of running. I hate that whole idea. That's so lame. I'm not gonna do it. I didn't do it tonight. Coach knew I was fine, he was just worried. I'm not gonna be a wuss. I'm gonna do my best on those 400's tomorrow morning, even if I can't finish them all.

I'm going to bed early tonight so I can be a little better rested. I'm gonna hurry and get ready for bed, then have a bowl of cereal. I think that's one of the problems, I haven't been eating enough. More food, more energy. It works hand in hand.

So, that's my cross country stories. It's getting hard. Real hard. However, I did get some super shwanky new shoes and shorts tonight, compliments of my awesome mom. I'm really happy with them, the shorts are just right, and the shoes are real nice as well. Score it, things are good.

Blogaday day three, what's going through my head? I'm thinking that I could be in bed right now if I didnae have to write this. I'm thinking that I dunno how good these are. I'm thinking maybe I should work on these before 10 at night, maybe do something quality while the sun's still up.

What happened to the good old days when CC was easy? What happened to the good old days when I was a fat kid? Where oh where did my happy weak and not-sore muscles go? Where'd my happy feet go?

It's just owning my body, I'm not gonna lie. Oh well, I'll recover soon, and then I'll be raging. Maybe I'm already raging, I don't even know. The important thing is, I'm in the best shape I've ever been in. How d'you like them apples?

Me and kyle went 1-1 in warcraft today. We're always 50%. We can never seem to win more than we lose. We're working on that.

Ok, it's really time for bed, g'night folks, have a good one. Cya.

Blogaday Day 2!

Here's the trouble with blogaday: I write no matter what.

The great thing about the publishing world is that when you send something to a publisher and it sucks, they send it back and they say it sucks. No way around it, they don't dodge aroud the issue, they just say it sucks. If it's not up to snuff, it's tossed out.

There is no publisher here. There's no grand plan. There's nothing but a big fat deadline. The sooner I get this written the sooner I get to bed.

So blogaday is interesting, because you end up with a post that is entirely different than a post you'd get any other time. Any other time I write a post it's because I've got something to say. Now I write a post because I've got to say something. So here we are, what am I going to say? No idea. Let's move on to exhibit A.

So... blogger won't let me upload any images. There goes exhibit A. Sigh.

Moving on....

For CC we ran 12 miles today. That's a ridiculous amount. Nobody should run that many miles after taking a week off. I'm still feeling it. It was a good run and all, but it was rough. It shattered my great theory that you can run forever. I used to believe that once you get past the 2 mile mark, as long as you take it slow and eat and drink enough water, you could run forever.

Unfortunately, the theory starts to break down towards mile 11.

So it was rough, but good. I finished it honorably. We got beat by a bunch of sophomores, I'm not sure how they did it, but whatever. More power to them. I think our team's gonna be raging.

I spent alot of the day after that asleep. I've felt weak all day. Me and my body are in a fight, it didn't like that run too much. Too bad I'm in charge eh? Hear that meatbag, I'm the winner, you're the loser. You'll do what I say. Don't make me come over there to where I'm at and you're at and we're still both at and we can't really get away but I'm gonna come get you anyways.

So really now. 12 miles is alot. But it's ok, cause I get to go to bed soon. Sleep will make things better.

You know what's trouble? Those personal messages on MSN messenger. The little italic text that you get to put after your name. The trouble exists because they've got insane potential, but you never know whether to take them seriously or not. They can be veiled messages to the whole world, and reveal how one is feeling in their innermost kidney. Just through analyzing the semantics of the whole bit, you'll find out what they had for breakfast yesterday. Sometimes they're deep, like a deep hole of some sort. So, you get used to analyzing these things, reading in to them, trying to figure out what's going on with your friends.

Then some other times, they don't mean anything. Sometimes I just throw some stuff up there for fun, and I can only assume other people do that too. It is in these cases that we tend to over analyze and make a fool of ourselves.

"Hey look, Example Girl A's personal message is "I like ultimate frisbee and guys who run cross country. I also enjoy halo." I should go bust a move!"

Me: "So, example girl A, I hear you like frisbee."

Example Girl A: "I'm a middle aged guy named Eugene."

Me: "Oh snap."

/log out

So really now, to simplify life, a breakdown of all the personal messages I've had in the past little while, and their significance.

Troubador - A traveling poet/song man in the high middle ages. Why is it my personal message? Because it's unique, and isn't super happy. It's not sad, but it's not super happy, and therefore it fits the mood sometimes fairly well. It means absolutely nothing, but it looks like it does. In that sense, I suppose it means more than anything else could at that moment. How's that for unneccesary depth?

The truth shall set you free - Taken from the bible, a good old line that's been cliche'd to death. The trouble with things being cliche'd to death is that they're usually very true, but after being cliche'd to death nobody wants to admit it. However, it's a good reminder to myself that the truth will set you free. None of this "I'm not gonna tell the whole story" business for me. I thought of it one night after having a particularly difficult conversation with a friend. It was a rough one, and I figured it was probably so because there was alot of stuff that just wasn't said for fear of other such stuff. So, the truth will set you free. And I really believe that.

Frisbee friday, 7 oclock, bennion elementary - This one isn't what it seems. It takes alot of courage to reveal this one, but I think it's time. When you scramble the letters about, you end up with a cryptic message that reveals my unnatural fear of rejection. It's true. I'll let you try to unscramble it, but one of the words involved is "onion." You say "But wait, this message appears nearly every thursday night, it doesn't make sense." That's where you're wrong you mountebank. Throughout the week I go about gathering courage to finally bust a move on thursday night. I do so, and am rejected each time. I thought the pain and fear of such a terrible answer was gone with the passing of the region dances, but no, it's back. So there you have it. My heart is crushed each and every thursday night. I set my personal message, then regroup. By next thursday, my spirit bar is high enough that I can attempt again. At which point, the cycle continues.

~ - That one means that I have no adequate message for what I want to say. Pretty basic. Like cole slaw even.

So there you have it. My secret life. I hope that was informative.

Now it's time for an even more fun game. I'm going to interpret what everyone else's personal messages mean.

Levi - Christian Rock Hardcore. Period.
This one obviously refers to an inner fear of clowns and loud noises. He wants to mask this fear by embracing the Christian music scene and wearing black lip stick. This makes him especially vulnerable to fire attacks, but gives him added resistance to rock and lightning based assaults.

Kendal - Spaghettification
Unless I'm mistaken, this refers to the internet counter-culture joke that is the flying meatball theory. See, a bunch of weirdo's decided that it wasn't evolution, and that it wasn't anything else but a large flying meatball that people'd the world. Spaghettification has something to do with becoming one with the meatball or something like that. Interestingly enough, it also affords resistance to lightning attacks, but adds great weakness to bible type moves. Fancy that.

That got old quick.

What's the deal with cardboard?

Yeah, it's definitely time to bring this to a close. Thanks to all our sponsors of blogaday day 2. Namely google adsense, and mozilla firefox. Now for some closing Haiku's

Raging
I'm like darkwing duck
saving the world with plungers
I wear a towel

Yeah, now some from Nick. Yay for Nick for actually giving my haiku's. Feel free to give me some. Email them to me at CJThatcher at Gmail dot com.

"Hai!"

Swords and sorcery

Just don't cut the cheese for me

I need more... ninjas.

As you can see, Nick greatly outskills me. But as for now, it's bed time, so have a good night all. G'night blogaday day 2.

2 down, 5 to go. Sigh.

Blogaday Day 1!

It's day one, and it's go time.

I think that if I ever write a book, the main character is going to assume the super hero name of Captain Go Time. I love go time, there's power behind it. It brings out the best and worst in the competitors on the field of life. No more mediocrity. No more second-best. It's time to bring your A-game, time to show the world what you're made of. This is no place for those who aren't willing to bring everything they've got and lay it on the table. It's time to give them everything you've got. It's time to be the very best you can be, the ultimate and greatest form of you. In short: it's go time.

Today was sunday, and sundays are amazing. I love sundays. Not just because I get a nap, but because I get to go to church and do some home teaching usually. Sunday's just make me feel good, it's great.

Life theory. I think that's going to be blogaday day 7. That's something that I've been wanting to write for a while. It's similar to food theory, but much cooler. I think I might work on that throughout the week, and finally post it. That'd be cool, to actually work on something instead of just letting things spew out of my brain.

I have a great love for wikipedia. For the uninitiated, wikipedia is an encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Therefore, it is the greatest encyclopedia that the world has ever seen. It is a risky model, that's for sure. The fact that anyone can edit it leads to some trouble. I can go in there and write an article about myself. I can also go in there and change the article on world war II to involve me winning the battle against godzilla.

However, since everyone can edit it, there are scores and scores of people that would quickly roll back what I had done and fix it. The fact that everyone can edit it is a risk and a safeguard at the same time. It's like all biological systems, it balances itself out. There are natural systems in there that will fix problems as they arise. It's really awesome.

But the moral of the story is, I go to wikipedia several times a day and just learn stuff. I can honestly say I enjoy reading the encyclopedia. You can find anything you want on wikipedia. I would strongly recomend using wikipedia to all of you. It's better than MJ.

So, for some further reading, go wiki bat bombs, or Lafayette, or if you're up to have your mind blown out of the water, go read about memes.

In conclusion, libya is a land of contrast. Also useful if the wikipedia home page, that has articles of the day, current events, recently added stuff, and whatnot. I like to wiki-surf. It's fun and useful.

Also worth your time is google news. Google, in its quest to make the world's data more accessible, has made an awesome little tool that compiles a ton of news from all sorts of sources, and makes it easy to find. You've got sports, you've got US, you've got world, you've got Health, you've got science, you've got business. You can even make your own custom categories. I could get frisbee news if I so desired.

Google news and wikipedia will keep you up to date, and make you a smarter person. Everybody loves a guy that knows what's going on in the world.

This post isn't too exciting, not too great. There's better stuff to come though. This is just day one. Tomorrow is bound to bring greater adventures. I'm going to cross country practice for the first time in a little more than a week tomorrow, I'm so excited to go run. It's going to be hard to come back in to it, but it'll be a great opportunity to show everybody that I'm not gonna fall over just cause I took a week off. I'm gonna be strong and jump right back in. My body isn't gonna know what hit it.

So, what's the news? Things are pretty good, it's been a good day. I'm going on scout camp next week, I'm excited for that. Hopefully this years will be a little less drama-bombed than last years. You can't really get drama on a scout camp, cause there aren't any girls. It's funny to remember last year though. Crazy talk really. I mean, what were you up to last year this time? I remember what I was up to. An adventure.

I'm excited to get back to school. I'm excited to start and finish my eagle project, and my summer homework. I'm excited to play halo for the first time in a month or so. I'm excited to go run tomorrow morning, and to get to bed tonight. So as for me, I'm out of here, but not before some good high quality Haiku action.

"Speed"

Ugly game face time.
Booking it across the way.
I run in wet socks.

"w00t"

Ph34r my l33t 5killzorz
I'll fragzorz you to your knees
from my mom's basement

See, Haikus are super fun. I'm not even good at them. But they're fun. You should all write them, and send them to me. Also, if you have any requests, now is the time to give them. Since i'm forced to write whether inspiration hits or not, I can do anything you guys feel like. So, send in the haiku's, send in the requests.

Tomorrow is monday. It's an opportunity to have a great day. It's an opportunity to make the world a better place. How are we going to make the world a better place? We're going to start with us. Perhaps it's a selfish idea, but perhaps that's the only way. History has shown us that the more good people there are around, the better a place does. How are we going to make the world a better place? We are going to improve ourselves. We're going to eat healthier, we're going to be nicer. We're gonna smile more, we're going to pick up the trash. We're going to do the little things. The power is within us to choose what we do. We can't tell them to stop smoking, but we can keep ourselves from smoking. We can keep our lungs healthy, and that's going to make the world a better place.

Christopher Thatcher, over and out.