Wabamos

Shabam! It's been a really long time since I've posted a classic long post. Yea verily, tonight will be no exception. Aha!

No but really, this list that you're about to see is old school. I made it a really long time ago. I had this great idea to go through all the posts that I had ever written, and catch a line or two from each of them that I liked. I generally went for funny ones, but found a few deep ones. I only got through about 9 months' worth. I intended to finish it later but never really got around to it. It's really really fragmented, but that was the point of the exercise. I really loved going back and reading this because I can remember about 90% of the stuff that I wrote really well, and remember why I wrote it, the stuff around it, that jazz. I love reading my old crap, cause I remember the good times. One day I'll go through and read absolutely everything that I've written. It's gonna take a day and a half, but I'm excited about it.

Anyways, enough musings. Here's the fragmented list, in chronological order. It starts with the oldest, and proceeds down the page to the oldest. Included is the date the post was written, the title of the post, and a few lines that I snagged. Don't expect it to make too much sense logically, just take it for what it's worth. A few of you will remember some of the events detailed herein, some'll be new. Either way, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

And now, I present to you my half finished project: Wabamos!


Begin

12/13/2004 "Today"

I wish I had raging muscles, and that I was good at basketball. Im not either, but by george I've got a hot computer I built from money I made laying carpets.

***

3/14/2005 "Happy Pi Day!"

Ive been telilng everybody happy pi day, but I don't think anybody got it. If you get it, good for you. If not, you're not alone in your ignorance.

******

3-19-2005 "Stray Mulch Diznope"

So, what's new in life? Well, I cleaned my room. That's pretty cool.

Im honestly considering joining an ultimate frisbee league. I'd have to find a team, but that's not too hard. I think my friends are probably getting tired of my frisbee fetish. I just dig the novelty flying disk.

My friends are doing good. Kyle got pantsed infront of hope last night, that was friggin awesome.

*****

4-11-2005 "Ay!"

I feel kinda like a girl cause im talking about my feelings and such, but I really don't care.

*****

4-21-2005 "It's been a while"

But the moral of the story is, girls are too much trouble. You see, computers work out great.

Computers like me, I just don't see why girls don't.

****

5-03-2005 "Anybody got a pet ram?"

Anybody got a pet ram? Cause if you did that'd be great.


At this point, something awesome happened. Either the other team got the crap stupored out of them, or we got some divine intervention on our side, but we just started owning. We went on an 11-0 run. 33 points in 11 minutes. We took the next 11 questions straight, and they couldn't touch us. By the end, it was 56 to 23.

we outscored them by 14 points, and you could just see them developing eating disorders as we abused them over the satellite.

Someday I just might be a mime, but probably not.

Anyways, stuff is good, Im a champion, and not just cause my socks say so this time.

*****

5-22-2005 "I love Church"

Church makes everything better, I love the feeling you get when you go. The world just tosses you around and pushes you down, but you go to church and everything is just so right.

*****

6-07-2005 "Singing In The Rain

Well, the thing about running around in torrential rainfall is that you get a little wet.

It ends up Marissa isn't evil, that kinda blew me away a little when I heard it.

****

6-14-2005 "...And the last seat on the plane is next to you"

"Of course, things will all be better in a couple days, they always are. In a way that's dissappointing, in another it's good. I guess I'll consider it good this time. All I really wanna do is complain, but I have no right to, so I suppose I'll hold my peace. Sorry for the lack of happiness this time, I'm a little tired of everything."


*****

6-15-2005 "Crisis Averted!"

Alrighty, drama over. Things are good again, thank you for your concern.

****

6-21-2005 "Short one today"

Well, tonight I made a decision. I'll fill you in on it later, but it was either one of the strongest things I've done in a long time, or one of the weakest. It was also one of the smartest, or one of the dumbest.

*****

6-21-2005 "Haha Suckers!"

Yeah, ends up it was a good decision, AND that it was an act of manly strongness, not girly weakliness.

****

8-15-2005 "I don't want to blog right now"

I guess there are just some times when you have to say "alrighty, I'll do it for the team." But, all vague comments aside, things are finally pretty good.

****

8-31-2005 "The week of August 29th"

"Taylorsville is a lot different from Eisenhower. The first difference you will notice is that the teachers are not trying to feed you the myth of the mad axe man like they were at Eisenhower. You see, the teachers at Eisenhower would have us believe that there is a mad axe man waiting outside the door of every class room, and if you go outside he's going to mutilate your body. Now, when the bell rings he leaves for approximately 5 minutes, and when the next bell rings, he comes back. Now, an ugly orange vest will ward him off for a small amount of time, but if he's exposed to it too much he'll become immune and kill you anyways. Don't go outside, or you're going to die."

That pale orange glow just isn't doing it for me these days.

So, we're forced to find new friends. Too bad we're all afraid of each other.

I need more sleep, and I think my English teacher needs some medication, but other than that we're going to be ok.

Oh, and my heart goes out to all the Katrina victims. very sad business.

*****

9-01-2005 "Ice Bath"

He's got a mullet, it’s amazing.

World history turned out pretty good today, I really like MJ. Me and Jason decided that we were going to call him MG because he's a gangster, but that probably won't happen.

No flirting in that class... unless it’s with Jason.

They talked about it like it was some sacred ritual that would make you run faster, jump higher, and look better.


Now, for some reason this all seemed really elaborate to me. Like it was a super super complex and super cool process, and that this tub was special. Nope. It’s just a tub with a bunch of ice water in it. However, the whole team regarded it with reverence, so I did too.

...and then we got in it.

but it was still pretty fun, and I enjoyed it. Plus, it makes a really cool story to tell on your blog that a whole 2 people read.

The last words she said to me were:
"ur dumb, and now I'm going to bed" But it’s still an improvement.

What is with all these girls pointing out the fact that I'm socially retarded all the sudden? Can't we just give me a break?

******

9-02-2005 "Mediocre"

0-49. Good game warriors. Last football game I ever go to on my own free will.

Right now I'd be more content to sit and stare at a random piece of sidewalk than carry on a conversation with a girl.

We decided that if I stood on a desk, and robert was on my shoulders, and robert had some straws taped to his forehead, we could probably win.

The moral of the story is, when you're trying to make a tower, dont make a conglomerate of 4 groups, it makes me feel bad when I lose.

******

9-04-2005 "Thoughts on Frisbee"

PC Cillin, you've made a powerful enemy today.

he'd say "Well, what are you passionate about?" The only thing that I could think of that I was passionate about was Frisbee.

There's a Frisbee vacuum here, and somebody has to fill it.

After establishing clubs in all the schools around, I send a killer letter/DVD to granite district, telling them that if they don’t support it as a real sport I'm going to blow up a building. They're forced to accept, and ultimate Frisbee is now a high school sport. I go on to receive a Nobel Prize for my work, and live happily ever after in my gym shorts.

******

9-06-2005 "(r^2 / 2) - (r* 0.5) + 1

Now, there are a few things in life that I take as direct challenges. One of them is a math problem that I know has an answer, but that I can't figure it out.

Not to be discouraged I went out on the front porch, so I could catch the last rays of the sunset. It was here my epiphany struck. "You should divide r^2 by 2 and see what you get."

I conquered the number pyramid. Fear me.

*******

9-19-2005 "High Fives"

My CPA is gonna blow chunks, simply because of chemistry, but oh well. Nobody likes coming to class on time anyways

So, the high school lady situation... Definitely needs some work.

but that's fine. I'm quite content to play frisbee and grow up to be a lonely old man.

*******

9-24-2005 "...But he commands fifty!"

So, we're at cross country on tuesday, and our crazy assistant coach that lives in the woods showed up again. Now, I have no idea who this crazy guy is. He just shows up sometimes. He says he graduated from taylorsville in '91, but I'm not sure I believe him.

And with that, we all booked it away from there as fast as we could. In the middle of this crazy man that lives in the woods' speech, molen took away his audience. The whole team was laughing about it during the whole workout, it was so cool. Ive never loved molen quite so much as I did then. Man he's cool.


******

9-30-2005 "I'm such a rebel"

It was an insane ninja explosion kind of operation..

25 cents! GOLDMINE!

That's right. This old man is gonna go sit on his driveway in a lawnchair.

I learned some valuable things today.

Valuable thing 1: Little kids think I'm amazing.

So, the moral of the story is, go hang out with kindergartners, it's alot nicer than reality.

Just remember, Zorro never dies.

********

10-05-2005 "Best day of my life? Probably."

Right now it's 4:02 PM, and things are great. Why? Because my legs don't hurt, I can breathe, my appendix feels like a million dollars, and I'm not in gym shorts.

"So... that's the constant acceleration gravity I guess" -Mr. Olsen.

*****

10-08-2005 "It's nice to win sometimes"

I had the greatest idea today, I'm not going to go into too many details, but it involves super glue and old CD drives.

Today I think I made the world a little better place. I cleaned up the room, made stallion better, and I've got plans to make a lot of other things a lot better. I think that's important, leaving the world better than we found it. Sharpe always talked about that when we did carpets, he always managed to find a way to leave the classroom better than when we found it. And I'm not talking about leaving it with better carpet on the floor. He'd just do whatever odd things needed to be done, it was pretty cool. That's what I want to do, I want to make the world a better place, one little thing at a time.

A rolling stone gathers no moss, but neither does a rocking amazing stone.

I want to run a marathon, I want to get 1st in a race, I want to be featured in popsci, I want to be artistic for once in my life, I want to write, I want an audience, I want a windmill with my name on it, I want a logo, and a theme song!

*****

10-17-05 "> mediocre"

I'm so excited to get out there and run my little heart out on wednesday. I know I'm not gonna get a good place, that's asking way too much, but I'm going to give my best. Hooray for state.

Sure, Jason beats me at Halo, and Robert does something-that-words-can't-describe to me at halo, but can they beat me in physics? No dice.

****

10-19-05 "5A State Cross Country Meet - October 19th, 2005"

Whoohoo, Dead last and proud of it. Today was the state CC meet, and I came in dead last. Nobody behind me, not even a fat kid.

I'd much rather have last than 3rd to last, at this way I get to have a title.

I tell people every day that I smell funny, and really, I find my musk rather pleasant.

So.... just for the record, to clear everything up: I am not, nor ever have been, nor ever will be "emo".

I feel so inadequate without ugly facial hair though. Oh well, suck it up princess. Toodles.

*****

10-27-2005 "DO DO DO....dododododo! (That's maelstrom if you can't tell)

That's right, I dropped her camera.

Dropping cameras is a bad idea in general. You all know you shouldn't do it. Its the thing everybody fears most, that someone will borrow their camera and drop it. I am now public enemy numero uno, I borrowed a camera and dropped it.

I could see it tip off of the tripod, and almost gracefully fall like a lead block through the air.

I don't know what these video cameras are made of, but NASA needs to look into it. I swear the camera bounced 9 times. Each one bringing a new horrifying crunch, and making me want to be invisible and back at my house underneath the bed instead of trying to help with videos and ruining expensive and nice digital cameras. I honestly believe that had I dropped the camera and a super ball from the same height at the same time, the super ball would have stopped bouncing first.

It wasn't just one swift blow to my soul, it was 7, one right after another. I nearly died.

The camera has been returned to it's rightful owner, and that's a major relief for me. I was on tenterhooks all day today because I knew it was just sitting in my locker, and I was afraid a terrorist was going to climb in there and blow himself up, just to screw me over. It's like the ring in lord of the rings. Super powerful, but bad things happen to those who use it, namely me.

******

10-31-05 "Happy Halloween"

My 6 words were: Gangrene, Mistress, Traffic, Parliament, Hags, and Fatal.

His gangrene
arm had been stabbed by his mistress
during heavy traffic
near the parliament
building.

Traffic around the castle was very heavy, I hate traffic.
Parliament
ought to make a law about it.

*****

11-14-2005 "We got a serious problem here folks"

When a needle penetrates into normal fat nothing happens, you barely feel it, it's not uncomfortable at all. When a needle lands on a nerve, you jerk the needle out, proceed to yell at it for the next 5 minute for what it just did to you, and hate it with every feeling in your body.

about a 6th of my playlist is BNL. They are fully clothed canadian men, and they are way cool.

Everybody loves Enya. If you don't, well, you can go to Russia.

So, just for the heck of it, lets list my current favorite songs ever:

1) Long December - Counting Crows
2) Closing Time - Semisonic
3) Light in your eyes - Blessed Union of Souls
4) Change your mind - Sister Hazel
5) Minutos - Ricardo Arjona
6) How Bizzare - OMC
7) We are the Champions - Queen
8) Pinch Me - BNL
9) Its all been done - BNL
10) Never is enough - BNL
11) Too little too late - BNL
12) The impression that I get - MMBT
13) Real world - Matchbox 20
14) Angel de amor - Mana
15) Hanging by a moment - Lifehouse
16) Doctor my eyes - Jackson Browne
17) Last Kiss - Pearl Jam
18) Collide - Howie Day
19) 99 red balloons - Goldfinger
20) Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
21) Eve6- Heart in a blender
22) Crazy for this girl - Evan and Jaron
23) Leaving town - dexter freebish
24) Higher - Creed
25) Clocks - Coldplay
26) CCR - Up around the bend
27) Sunscreen - I don't even know who sings/says it, but it's amazing.

Question: Who would win in a cage match battle to the death: Picard or Kirk? (Nick MorandIE)

Answer: That's easy. Morris

******

11-20-2005 "The Best Game Ever Played II"

"There was a frisbee game I played a few weeks ago that I never got to write about. It was the most amazing game that I've ever played, and I dont know how i managed to get by without writing about it. Well, here it is, something I should have done a long time ago.

It was about 10 O'clock PM, it was cold outside, but not bitter quite yet. Off to the North, thunderclouds were forming, and streaks of lightning could be seen in the distance. Back at base, the wind was calm, no rain, no lightning, but the clouds all seemed red. It was eerily serene, and we knew something must be afoot. The past 2 games had both been shutouts. Both times one of the newbie seniors was captain, and brad was the other. The newbies all picked each other, and brad assembled a dream team both times, it was a rout. Hardly worth playing, the outcome was predetermined.

The 3rd game promised to be better. We had decent captains, and the teams stacked up pretty even. The bad guys had Andrew, Brad, Walker, and a few more I can't remember. My team had me, little Selck, Bouy, another old guy, Brady, and Benji. The teams looked great, we had enough for subs, and so the game started, just like any other game."

"Somehow, it was 8-1, in favor of the bad guys. We were discouraged, but we knew we weren't beat yet. We finally got our guys in, and leadership arose. Whether it was me, or Brady, or whoever, leadership came in, and our brains kicked on. We knew we were down 7, we knew the bad guys had us on the run, but we figured out how to beat them. With out players stacked the way we wanted them, our team finally had the depth it needed from the bench, and we began to actually play the game for the first time."

"rejuvenated by our recent realization that we weren't all fat and worthless, we started pushing it hard, and took it to 5-12."

We knew that we couldn't let it go, that if we gave up even one point they could put us in a ninja headlock that we'd never get out of.

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

"The game progessed, both teams fighting. One for glory, and another to avoid humiliation. If we won, we'd remember it always, the time that we beat the impossible, and slew the dragon. If they won, they wouldn't have to live with knowing they let their 8-1 lead go. Either way, we knew the game was epic. Eternal bragging rights awaited the winner, but neither of us could win."

"It was nearing 12 O'clock. We had been playing straight for 2 hours. Our subs had long gone home, so it was the same 7 guys on each team booking it up and down the field. Time slowed down, the red twilight stayed the only constant. The air, once electric, was now heavy. We were fighting for life, even though it seemed to be leaving us. We had to play on, it was our destiny, but we all knew it had to end soon."

Eternal glory wasn't awarded to anybody that night, but both of us deserved it. 14 men, fighting with all that they've got, that is what dreams are made of.

******

11-23-2005 "Happy Thanksgiving"

Hey everybody, happy Thanksgiving to you all. I hope you have all had super awesome great days. As for me, It's not Thanksgiving yet. I'm writing this to the future, since I assume nobody is gonna read this in the next 30 minutes while it's still the day before Thanksgiving.

****

11-24-2005 "Thank You"

If there is one thing that I find it really hard to forget, it's people that just randomly do really really nice things for me. Everybody has the potential to do something extraordinairily nice to someone every day. Very rarely is the oppurtunity taken, but I'd like to thank the people that have been nice.

Thanks Mr. Hansen for being nice to me when I walked into class 20 minutes late.

Thanks Kira Fulton for always saying hi to me in the halls.

Thanks Porter for giving me a ride home, and being nice to me.

Thanks Mrs. Neal at Eisenhower for helping me out with my book problem last year. She hadn't ever talked to me before the day I went to her for help, but she totally went out of her way to make sure everything got taken care of, that was awesome. Thanks so much.


Thanks Andrew, for being an awesome brother and letting me play frisbee and raquetball with you.

Thanks Peter, for giving me insight into my own self, and for always being a stud when I needed one. You're gonna go far man.

Thanks Sharpe, for giving me a job, and valuable training.

Thanks to my brothers, for teaching me everything I know, giving me all I've got, and shaping me into who I am. You guys rock to the max.

Thanks Dan Rasband, for being the best teacher ever.

Thanks Travis Benson, for being the coolest adult to hit a 13 year old ever.

Thanks to anyone that's ever said hi to me in the halls, I appreciate that alot.

Thanks Colver, for making me realize I wasn't all that and a bucket of cheese.

Thanks Morris, for making me realize I'm not even the bucket.

Thank you Mr. Fiack, for teaching me algebra, even though I hated it, I learned everything I needed.

Thank you Mom and Dad, for everything. You're the very best parents ever. I wouldn't be anything without you guys, thanks so much.


Thanks Tanya, for making me show off all through 7th and 8th grade.

Thanks for lighting your field at night bennion elementary.

Props to the founding fathers, you ownt those brits.

*********

11-26-2005 "The Fight"

Anyways, I'm currently being evicted from the computer library. Somehow the unjust have gained power, and the computer library is being transformed into a bedroom for a night. You see, this is why we have a computer library, so we can always use it without people sleeping in it. It's the computer sanctuary. Oh no, I'm being kicked out. I've got 4 minutes to write this, go go go.

Movies have messed up the idea of happily ever after. I'm here to tell you that the world never starts spinning and fades to black


Anyways, you always have to fight for that happiness. Hold on to it. Its not about being happy always, or being sad always, its about being happy as much as you can and making the most out of the days that you have. Go out, fight, win. Know that there will be happy days and sad days, but that its up to you what you do with them, and that what you do influences whether you'll be happy or sad. No forevers yet, but we do know that tomorrow will always come. We know that we can always shape tomorrow, go make it the best you can, because its a wild one. What you do today isn't going to shape all the tomorrow's forever, but its going to shape the next one. Go for it.

********

11-29-2005 "That was fast"

I hate my nose, but that's alright.

****

12-01-2005 "The upheaval"


Something weird is going on. Its not like one of those weird things that goes on in the middle of the night when you think there's an elephant in your driveway making weird noises at you, its like one of those weird things when you wake up in the middle of the night and you realize that you're switched 180 degrees, your feet are where your head ought to be, and you have no idea how it happened.....but there aren't elephants.

See, those of you who know me (That ought to be all of you, unless there are weird pedophiles out there) you all know that I'm pretty old. Im pretty much an old man. I like my cereal cold, my TV as quiet as possible, my cars slow, and fiber glass tall and frothy.

I'm afraid of cell phones, escalators, and the future.

It was pizza, and it was everything I always dreamed of. Greasy, cheesy, peperoni-y. It left my hands dripping with liquid gold. It was rich, it was fluffy, it wasn't a ham sandwich. I bought pizza for the first, or maybe the second time. I might have done it once before in 7th grade, I just don't remember. Either way, this was monumental. My first high school piece of pizza. wow.

The MegaBite. A quarter pound cookie with 75 carbohydrates, 480 calories, and the most heavenly taste ever. I like to call it "Diabetic Coma in a wrapper." I spent 2.50 on lunch today, and didn't have a piece of white bread.


First laziness, and now pizza. What is going on? What's the next bandwagon I'm gonna jump on next? Does anyone have a nightmare before Christmas sweatshirt I can borrow? Does anyone know how to put mascara on a boy? I need girl pants!

******

12-05-2005 "A Day in the Life of Christopher J Thatcher"

Yeah,I fell asleep halfway through. I always do with this guy. How many of you's be knowing how long it takes for me to fall asleep? It begins with an "N" and ends with "ot very long."


1:00 - Our final for Macbeth is to write an essay on one of 18 topics. They all suck, I've got no idea, and it's hand written.

In short, I'm screwed.

We've got the vampire sub. The vampire sub is the one that got lasered by the dentist, and had to tell the whole world about it. Its a sad story the first 4 times you hear it. After that, you begin to think she's just a lady on a soapbox, and then you begin to hope the soapbox will catch fire. luckily, she kept it down today.

I love this place, cause its a pediatric place, for little kids ya know. So there are always a bunch of little 7 year olds running around, then me. They sit and watch Disney movies, and I sit there and try not to look too scary. It doesn't work, they always run from me.

*********

Fin

Particular

So. yeah.

Janitor style. Broom.































Mr. Rogers style. Neighbor.





















Ok. Alright. Don't make me.




















Fidel Castro style. giantmuralofmyfaceonawall!

























....guess it hasn't been enough time.

Dvorak for the win

hi, i really want to write this in dvorak. dvorak is teh uber. im gonna get good at this.

Ok, now that that's taken care of. My brother just introduced me to dvorak. It's the alternate keyboard lay out that's uber efficient. The letters are placed differently, more efficiently. It's so uber.

I'm really slow with it right now, I've only been practicing for half an hour. But ya know what, I think I want to get good at it. I'm thinking that with enough practice, I could bump my words per minute up from 90 to about 150. That'd just be cool. You'd get even longer blogs, and it'd take me less time! Yes!

So really, it's late. like, 11:50 ish. I really want to go to bed. And the truth is, I am going to. There's a huge post I've already prepared. I had to go work jolenes today, so I kept a journal. It's got timestamps, it's got events, it's got everything.

I gotta tell you, I suck at my job.

So there's gonna be something super fun for you tomorrow. There was alot of cool stuff that went on at Jolene's today. Lots of fun adventures in the parking lot. Adventures all around.

...And really now, what's more fun than driving on I-80 without a rear view mirror?

So, yea verily, I'm off to bed. I hope you've all had a good day and all that jazz. Tomorrow: greatness.

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.