The Weekly

Hello! Well, I believe Steve summed it up quite well in his last entry about the amount of work and overall school week-related stress that keeps us busy everyday. It's a shame neither of us can barely post, but at least we have weekends right? :P Last time I wrote about a new kitten that suddenly appeared at my house Friday after school. It stayed with us the entire week, and each day my family grew closer to it. We took care of it and even played with it. I really liked her, she was so cute, and really cheered everyone up in her playful curiosity over things. Yesterday [the most recent Friday afternoon], she disappeared and we haven't seen her since. We got some thunderstorms and my mother said she hasn't seen her since then. I spent some time looking around the yard for her, but had no luck. I'm not sure where she went, and honestly miss her. :P I think we all do because we were growing attached. It is ironic, however, how she disappeared exactly one week later just as sudden as she appeared. I hope she's okay though, wherever her little booty is. :P

After a long school week, I was excited to go to my friend Heather's house after school and relax. :P We didn't stay there very long though. We went up to the barn, and after feeding the animals had to come back and get ready for this "Teen Night" being held at Heather's church which she invited me to come along to. It was really nice actually. =) I think everyone was hoping for more teens to be there though. There was a good amount nonetheless, and all people I had never met before, with some I had heard of from Heather. I was excited on the way because I wanted to meet new people my age. :P It's weird, sometimes I get these surges of excitement and confidence where I want to go and meet more people my age. I only know the crowd from my school, and I think meeting others will widen my view and expand my friendships which I actually want to happen hehe. :P Everyone there was really nice. :] There was a small mix of ages between 12-21, but I think most were 16 to be honest. :P We ate first and then after playing outside for awhile got to go on a really fun hayride as the sun was setting. Everybody was worried rain might ruin the plans, but thankfully it held off and we got to go on a pretty long ride past all these farms as it was getting darker by the minute. I thought it was so much fun! :P Sure, it was a little chilly, and kind of spooky, but I enjoyed it! :] Once the ride was over there was a big fire to warm up near and people were passing out glow in the dark earrings and things which was cool. xD It then started to rain so everybody had to go inside and thats when the pastor and a friend of the pastor [I think?] spoke to us a little and then there were some guitars and people started playing songs and singing and such. =) It was all real nice, and I was glad I got to finally put faces to some of the names Heather always talks about. ;)

When I got home, Steve told me of the great news that Jonathan Coulton is playing nearby on October 19th. [see his last entry!;)] That got me really excited. However I'm not sure what's going to be. We sort of need a ride there...yknow? xD Anyway I love JoCo and I would love to see him! hehe. :P

Today was a really nice day, aside from the fact I couldn't find that little kitty anymore. The weather was perfect. I was going to go out shopping or something, but didn't feel like it actually, haha. Instead I went for a long walk down my road to take in some fall foliage, fresh air, and iPod time. xD Afterwards I went driving! Woo. :) It went great, which I am glad to announce! :P I really "wanted" to drive this time and was "excited" believe it or not. :P My goodness I change fast. xD I think I was driving for a full hour, give or take, and got in a lot of practice in the parking lot. I finally think I found a spot to focus on to align the vehicle better up with curbs and lines and that sort of thing. That was hard for me to do the first few times I tried. I'm also turning corners a lot smoother at a consistent speed and staying to my side better than I had previously where I went too much into the other lane. I was happy I could park right up against the curb with only a few inches apart. That was thanks to my new focusing point, haha. That probably doesn't sound like much to you advanced drivers but for a newbie that was kind of hard for me. :P I had fun though, which is a good step. ;)

I'm feeling tired now, believe it or not. :P I think I wrote all I intended to write about. Unfortunately, you can't expect another entry until next weekend with my busy schedule and all. xD See you. (:

Radically Random...

For my Journalism class, we had to hand in Entertainment articles. I took some lines from online and then added a few of my own to spazz up this "90's Child" list. I thought it was fun to do. I know I've pasted one before, but it's classic, and this is my updated one for the school newspaper so I thought I'd share it. That way if you never saw such a thing before, you'll enjoy reading through it. =)

You know you're a 90's child if...

You remember playing Red Rover, Cops&Robbers, Hopscotch, Hacky Sacs, and yo-yo's at recess.

You got super excited when it was time to play "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" in computer class at school.

You've ever ended a sentence with the word "Psyche!", "NOT!", or "Then why don't you marry it!"

Trading Pokemon cards and playing it on gameboy was your life.

You collected Beanie Babies, Troll dolls, Furbies and/or Pogs.

Spice Girls were "da bomb" and so was wearing high heeled sneakers just like them.

All your school supplies were the "Lisa Frank" brand.

Micheal Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were the best and only basketball team you knew of.

You will never forget where you were when you heard your first Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and N'Sync song.

You enjoyed partying with S-Club 7.

Scrunchies were a girl's best friend.

You remember writing M.A.S.H. notes and those little fortune cookie things that predicted your life.

Tang, Ring Pops, Warheads and Lunchables were the coolest new things to eat.

You ever watched Wishbone, Reading Rainbow, Step by Step, Doug, or Ren & Stimpy on television.

You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green ranger, were meant to be together.

You remember when Super Nintendo and Skip-it's became popular.

You remember the craze and then banning of slap bracelets.

You enjoyed reading Goosebumps or the Baby Sitter's Club series.

Things like who's "it" and other issues were settled by "rock paper scissors"..or "bubble gum bubble gum in a dish"...and even better, "daddy had a donkey inky binky bonky."

Stress

This is how I am almost every school day after coming home from school -- a workaholic and stressed out.

Where's the summer where you need it? Honestly, I cannot wait until it's summer again. School this year is just too much too soon and is extremely stressful. I said this so many times in the past too about this school year, but it really is too much to comprehend. I mostly spend time doing homework after school from 3 P.M. to 10-11:30 P.M. and in reality, that's not right. This is the main reason why I didn't post in about 19 days. Of course the blog was able to be updated regularly in the past school years (10th and 9th grades) as we didn't receive as much work. Honestly, you would mostly have math, maybe English, and a five minute assignment in one or two other classes, and maybe a test that you barely have to study for because it's all matching or multiple choice and the answer is right in front of you. The most stressful times in those years were around midterms and finals, and if we had a project to do in a class, an essay to write, or an oral presentation to give. Now let's fast forward back to this school year -- 11th grade. The tests are mostly all fill-in-the-blanks and essays with multiple choice, matching, and true-or-false only appearing rarely (unless that's the format of every test in a specific course). The most stressful time this year is pretty much all year; in a single week we may have an essay due, a chemistry lab due, three to six tests or quizzes, and a lot of homework assignments every night. And honestly, it's horrible when you're doing homework for three to four hours and still have two exams to study for. And yes, we shouldn't cram, I agree. I tried not to cram at the beginning of this school year. It's almost impossible, however, to study for a test you have Thursday on Monday when you have two exams on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and hours upon hours of homework to do. By the time you do the work that has to be done for Tuesday, you're dead tired. 11th grade compared to any previous grade that I was ever in is the hardest grade out of them all. I was able to easily breeze through 10th grade with only a few stressful encounters, but this year isn't going to be a breeze. This year is a year of survival -- either you try hard and live, or you slack and die. A month of school is about finished, and let me tell you, I'm not anxious one bit for the other eight months. If I'm having difficulties this early on, then it's only going to get harder and more advanced. Honestly, I envy the people who have an extracurricular activity and/or job and can still get good grades in school. I'm stressed out with just school itself.

I hope to see this amazing man on October 19th. We just need a ride. And no, do not volunteer.

Yesterday has been a good day, however, and made me feel a bit better after a rather stressful week of school. One of the items of business I cannot state as it's classified, but I shall openly share the other two. After school I came home and ran to my laptop to relax a little bit before the Friday night high school football game between the Lakeland Chiefs and the Carbondale Chargers. Normally as soon as I come onto the computer, I check two sites right off the bat. The stats for Buddy Foote's Blog v.2 (which may I add has been doing horrible lately -- we only had eight uniques last Tuesday!) and Jonathan Coulton's blog. I'm always anxious to see whether or not Coulton has any new shows that are close to home so that I may attend them. I realized that he was on the east coast and I wondered if he may travel from Maine down the coast and hopefully stop in Pennsylvania. So I click on "Shows" and notice that his table of shows appeared to be longer. Excited, I actually read the contents of the table. In the last row, I noticed the abbreviation "PA" and it just jumped out at me and I grabbed it and read more. Coulton is coming to Sellersville, PA and will be playing at the Sellersville Theater. I never heard of the town/city of Sellersville, so I hopped onto Google Maps to get the distance from my house to Sellersville. Well, I learned that Sellersville was two hours away, down past Allentown, and I live up north between Scranton and Carbondale in the town of Jermyn. I have traveled distances that long a lot of times in the near past, such as when I went to Hersey Park with Craig and to Knobels with my brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and niece this summer. Well, I told Craig and Caitlin yesterday about the event and asked if they wanted to go, and they happily agreed. However, we have a conundrum here. We need a ride. I asked my father and he said 'maybe', and I asked Caitlin to see what her father would say but I'll find that answer out today. Once we can find a ride, we'll buy the tickets online, and October 19th will be the happiest day of my life (as well as Roman's birthday). Just the thought of seeing JoCo live brings shivers down my spine, and really, I can't imagine it. I can't imagine him being right there in front of me up on a stage singing and playing his heart out. I hope that we can get pictures with him though -- that would be freaking awesome! Jonathan Coulton ftw.

The only ball that I look forward to every Friday night. Only to think that we already played five games in the season.

And the second good element of my day was the football game last night, in which Lakeland won with the final score: 46-15. And the only reason Carbondale even scored is because we had our second string in with their first string. The score was 40-0 before Carbondale even scored, and then even after they scored twice, our second string was able to charge down the field for another touchdown against their first string -- and the amazing part was that it was the last five seconds of the game when we scored. So now Lakeland is 4-1, with our only defeat by Abington Heights -- which is a quad A school versus a double A school, and we lost to them for years so what's to change?

Well, not to cut this blog off, but I have to go get ready as Darrin is taking a few of us out to eat somewhere. Have a good one.

Kitty Cat

Phew. I really feel like blogging! It's a shame I am too busy during the week to sit and write anything then. I noticed blog stats seem to go the lowest then, and it's hard because there isn't much Steve and I can do when we are drowned in school work. ;P Well, I had a tough week. I am looking forward to the weekend and being rejuvenated for the following school week. Picture Day was Thursday, say cheese. xD The weather got warm which I enjoyed. I was sick with a cold though. I have this weird cut by my eyebrow. My thumb keeps bleeding since I whacked it hard off of something or other. :P I feel reaaaaally itchy. I am currently addicted to listening to the song "Dark Blue" by Jack's Mannequin. Big Brother ended this week. My English teacher told me my outfit was cute today. :] I like to sleep. I think cats are cool. &that's all my current rambling introductions for now. :]

Yes, Big Brother ended Tuesday night with the season finale. I felt sad in a way because it is such a great summer reality show, and this season 8 was hands down the best yet. =) I remember when it started back in July. Aw, I will miss watching it. For the record, Evil Dick won the grand prize and Daniele won second, but to me, just the fact that the both of them made it was enough for me. The Donato's stole the game's heart, they both got money, the end! :D Can't wait until next summer ! ;]

Before I started writing this I was looking at my Xanadu and CAT mousepad from Warped Tour, and it made me miss summer even more. Warped Tour, if you haven't heard, was amazing, and I miss that day. I miss the stifling heat, my burnt shoulders, my tank top. haha man, I miss summer. At least my tan hasn't really faded yet. I'm still darker than some, which is a plus to me because you'd think with my red hair I'd be pale as a ghost, but due to dark eyes I'm grateful to tan nicely. :)

I felt bothered today at school, so didn't have the greatest day. I was probably tired too though. I was supposed to leave for a doctor's appt. but this is the second week it was cancelled due to unknown reasons. :P Ridiculous eh? Well, we've had it with that I suppose so now have to look for another. :P

I did have a shocking surprise that cheered me up when I came home from school today though! I got home after 3 let's say, and was upstairs changing when I heard my mother calling me. I thought she wanted me to go and see a deer in the backyard. [Haha honestly, yeah, that's what I thought. :P] I run to the window and see this kitten jump up onto our back deck. I go "oh my gosh! don't scare it! let it be!" and I rush outside. Typically I know the animals on my road, along with the stray adult cats, but I had never seen this kitten before. Plus it wasn't running away, which other pets on the road would do. I was pleasantly surprised to see it following me all over the yard, purring against my legs, and not leaving me. I figured maybe my neighbors got a new cat or something, so we just assumed it'd go back home soon enough. As the sun continued to set, the kitten was still hanging around. It slept on the deck a little, and then my brother and I went out to see it again and tried to play with it. I couldn't help but pet it, it looked so harmless and cute. :] Well, I'm not sure whose it is, or if a person just dropped it off because they didn't want it anymore [that happens]. It didn't have a collar or anything, and wouldn't leave even when it was spooked a little. xD My brother kept calling it Gerome and Evil Dick or something [haha] and I was calling it Chopstick [lol don't ask why, verrrry random word that popped in my head first]. :P As of now, I have come to two conclusions about the mysterious cat. I don't think it is a neighbors'. Reason being they were outside and would have wondered where their new kitten was if let's say they just got one, haha. Second thought I had was during the summer when my friends and I use to lie in my hammock, we'd hear random meowing but could never find where it came from. Was it that same kitten? Who knows. :P It's still a kitten, but a larger one, like probably nearing a year old if not already. That's my guess, but what do I know. xD It's adorable though, has a precious face and four white gloves on it's paws. ;P It was gentle too. When I was younger I think I was scared of cats, but ever since I got use to them with my friend Heather they grew on me, and I guess I know better how to handle one now. xD I secretly hope it stays..hehe. It was something new and exciting and cheered me up today, like I said. My brother and I were outside the whole time just playing around with it. :] Then we decided that if it were to hang around more than a few days, we'd call it Oliver. :D Good name? (: I don't have my hopes up or anything, and if it belongs to someone I hope they get him back. It was fun to have around tonight though. Weird too, not used to a cat following me. :P My dog was aggressive though. She flipped out at the sight of the thing until she calmed down. xD I think it's just so cool though. :) I love animals and my nickname is Cat for goodness sake! x) hehe.

That's all I have for now. I'll write again before the weekend's up. I want to go see the kitty again! ;]

Help Needed: Blog Title Creator Job Opening

Who is this man and why is he on my blog post? Maybe he's the new blog title creator?

Please ignore the title above as it has nothing to do whatsoever with what you'll read in this blog post. When you have no idea what to put down as a title and you don't want to stick in the overrated and overused "Untitled", you need to create some witty alternative. So if you a professional blog title creator looking for a job then I'm sorry, I lied to you. Go back to searching on Google, however I prefer Ask.com. Why? Then you can type in "Where can I find a job opening for the occupation of blog title creating" and then Buddy Foote's Blog v.2 will be the first site up there and you'll click on it again and it'll come up in my "Recent Keyword Activity" on StatCounter.com and then I can make fun of you in my "Comment That Keyword" special that I didn't do in months. Yea, if you're a regular reader of the past and present, you may recall such a feature that I included in my blog posts that haven't popped up in who-knows-how-long where I took random search keywords that were used to get to BFBv.2 and comment them. I actually miss doing such, but I barely get any good keywords anymore to quote. And nobody uses 'Ask The Author'! What the heck? Okay, I went way offtrack and this paragraph has nothing to do with what I intended this blog post to be about, so sorry about the rambling. But yes, no job opening for you.

Moments before Adam Sandler feels the breasts of Jessica Biel. Heck with discriminatory terms, the sexual references in the movie is enough to turn a child from innocent to corrupt.

I just got back from Cinemark at Montage and at the movies I saw the comedy known as, or rather should I say called, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry". I'm no movie critic or reviewer but I have to say that this was the funniest movie I saw since "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan". Yes, that title is a mouthful and whoever created it shall be hired as my blog title creator even though there is no job opening or even probably an occupation of that type. Anyhow, the movie stars were Adam Sandler and Kevin James -- two of the greatest comedy stars placed in one film. From beginning to end, Corey (a.k.a. the "real Foote") and I laughed our asses off every minute the film progressed onward. Corey stated that there were some disturbing parts in the movie, but hey, it's a part of life that is a reality for many people in the world and we should all just accept it. I didn't think the movie was cheesy either, which a lot of comedy movies tend to be. Yes, some things like the court room scene seemed a bit off from reality, but of course what right do I have to say of that unless I visited every court in the country and witnessed a few cases? Also it didn't seem right how they freely used discriminatory terms in the movie against the gay community. Looking at the big picture, it's like saying the 'n word' in a PG-13 movie -- it just shouldn't happen. Child can see this movie and learn these terms and use them. I know people say that kids will be introduced to it sooner or later, but let's try to preserve a child's innocence as long as possible. Actually looking back, there's many other scenes in the movie that could stir up some controversy for a child (like the breast feeling scene), but...I guess that can counterattack my argument? Anyway, awesome movie -- ignore the reviews from movie critics (giving the movie scores like 3/5 or less doesn't suit the movie; it definitely deserves 4/5+) and go see it before it leaves the theaters. It's been out, I think, since early August so it's not going to be in the box office too much longer. It gets a 4.8/5 from me.

I don't know about you, but this logo sort of turns me on in that geeky sort of way. By the way, where's BFBv.2's logo?

Other from going to the movies today, I really didn't do anything else. I spent the day trying to figure out what ad service to stick with and finally concluded to stick with AdBrite. I was accepting certain advertisers today and rejecting the ones who offered a low payout, but I know that in the next few weeks that I'll be experimenting and trying out different advertisers. Some of the ads weren't appreciated by some of the other blog authors (such as the ad banners depicting a model almost revealing herself) so I either got rid of them or moved them to the bottom of the page, where us blog authors generally don't wander to. We know what's down there as we wrote it, but that's no excuse for you to not wander about. You're probably wondering why I'm cluttering the blog with three different ad spaces. Well, more or less it's to experiment. I plan on going to school for programming and probably computer science in general, and if I may want to branch away and be my own boss and want to run my own site, I'll need a way to make money. Why not test different methods early on so that when I'm at that stage in my life where I desperately need money just to maintain the life of the site that I know what I'm doing and have that backup experience? Just like in my blog post from yesterday, I was talking about that Lego tower metaphor. Well, I'll need to gradually learn techniques to make money from the web on a site so that I won't be faced with that major learning curve when I'm up there at that stage. As to what site I'll create is a different story though -- I'll create what I know I can make from my studies. And yes, you can say that I'm in it to see exactly what it's like to make money online, but having less than fifteen dollars made in about a year of using the service, I won't be receiving a check for a very long time.

This the AP chem lab report that I should have been working on today, but no, I wasted the day. Wait a second, this paper chromatography is set up differently! We didn't have awesome clothespins!

Today I should have been working on my AP Chem lab on paper chromatography or at least working on the terms or finishing up "The Grapes of Wrath" (which I need to desperately finish as soon as possible as the test on it is this Friday). But no, I sat on the computer all day, only reading a chapter and a half in the book, and did no productive work whatsoever. And I hate that. I always do this! Oh, today is only Saturday; if I procrastinate today I have all day Sunday to work on school stuff. Yes, that may be okay, but what happens if something comes up on Sunday that I really want to do but can't because I pushed everything to then. Want to go out, want to go to your nephew's soccer game, want to go for a walk, want to go run an instance on WoW -- no, sorry. I have lots of homework and studying to do because I wasted the rest of the weekend doing nothing. This weekend, however, it's a bit different. I technically only have one thing for homework, the chem lab. However, I like to be on top of the game and do other work or study extra so that I'll spend more time relaxing during the week when I desperately need to cool down and refresh myself than killing myself with hours of school work. But will I always study or do what I bring home? Heck no. If I have a test on Friday, I'll bring home the book, tablet, and folder of that subject on Monday and will I even touch it -- no! It's just more weight to carry on my back to and from school that I don't need. I generally cram no matter what. I haven't been cramming much so far this year, and would actually study a few nights before the test, but I can already feel myself slacking from this positive habit. In college, I'll have to study probably weeks before a test (might be exaggerating a bit) so I better stick with this habit, but doing it for twelve days in a row seems pretty darn good for me so far. I guess as long as you know the material, you'll do good on the test, whether you cram it or not.

Well, it's getting late and I feel like bullshitting on the internet a bit before heading off to bed. Y'know, listening to Jonathan Coulton, reading blogs, etc. so I'm going to end this entry now. Yes, it's ended. Actually, now it's ended. However if I keep on typing after I say that it's ended then it's not actually ended. So we're in a conundrum here. Okay, let me try this one more time. The end.

Have a good one.

Darn, I broke the whole meaning of "the end" thing again!

The end.

Busy, Busy

I know, I bet you all probably miss me dearly since I haven't posted in about two weeks, but here I am, reporting back to you my life, rants, and experiences. And what reason can be used this time against my inactivity? School. Yes, during the summer I had unreasonable excuses such as spending hours playing a computer game or staying outside long and getting tired, but when you have four things for homework and two to three tests to study for all in one night, then that is the best excuse in the world. It's not even an excuse but more of a limit. Honestly, if you've been writing for six hours in school, taking notes, doing homework, taking an essay test, etc. then I doubt you would feel like coming home and after all that homework and studying write a blog entry. However, not a lot of high school students have their own blog either and if they do, it's not updated regularly. Actually, most of the blogs owned by high schoolers can probably be found on the popular website of MySpace. But back to not wanting to write after writing all day long -- there's only so much you can take until you need a break from it and need time to relax. If you just write all day and then have a website which should be more of a recreational hobby for you, you would probably push off any production on that site and more or less do another activity. That's like going to football practice all day and then going for a jog to keep in shape afterwards -- some can do it, some may, but in general, there's only so much you can take. I hope this made some sense...I'm just rambling on illogical thoughts.

School is, what can I call it? -- challenging. Compared to tenth grade, eleventh grade is like comparing a freshman year in college to seventh grade; it just feels like a huge step up even though it's only one year up on the ladder. I have to say that we got away with murder last year. Besides Spanish and SAT Prep (Grammar/Writing), my subjects last year rarely presented any problems or challenges. Sure, the biology tests were sometimes near impossible and we had to write a few research papers in world cultures, but those former and rare difficulties would be a common day-to-day challenge this year. For example, next week in AP Chem I have a lab report due, a long list of vocabulary to define, and a formal five paragraph essay to construct as well as about six diagrams to draw along with it. And then probably after all that, the following week looks like a test in that class already. AP Chem doesn't give you time to relax. You feel like you're finally on top of things and then you're presented with more problems. And people wonder why I'm so stressed out. I honestly envy the people who do sports, have a job, and/or do some other activity that involves school or church or the community and still be able to succeed well in school. These are the people who deserve the attention and I think are technically the smart ones as they can adapt to their schedule and still know what's going on in their education. But of course, I can rarely find people like this. If people are involved in too much sports or activities, their grades may drop in school, or if they're worried more about school than that activity, then their performance may lack in that activity (however I too find this to be rare).

But back to the initial point that I was making (I tend to get very offtrack), this school year is hammering us with work whereas last year was somewhat of a joke. And I have to somewhat blame the curriculum for this. School should be like a tower of Lego blocks, and gradually you'll add one block at a time to the tower. The blocks represent your intelligence levels and everything that you do in school builds up that intelligence. Adding one block at a time prevents the tower from falling over, however adding multiple blocks at once interrupts the balance and down goes the tower. Well, the curriculum at my school, Lakeland, should be helping us add that one block at a time to our tower -- our overall intelligence. But when you have a period of time like when I went from ninth to tenth grade, blocks were barely added to the tower at a fast rate, but they were added slowly one at a time. This means that the learning curve in both grades wasn't very different. But when you're going from tenth grade to eleventh grade, you're just piling on twenty blocks at a time at a fast rate, and then the tower falls over. Your intelligence can't take in all the information at once and you lose it. What I'm trying to say is that the school goes from babying us to treating us like college students out of nowhere, and we can't adjust to that change. The school should be constructed so that we shouldn't feel that change, and that the blocks are added to our intelligence tower without us knowing about it and feeling the stress. We should be able to write essays and research papers without bursting a blood vessel in our brain at this point in our education, but still for many of the students including myself it creates problems. We don't know where to start, we don't know how to properly create a transition from paragraph three to four, etc. -- it's huge problems for us that kids at other schools probably don't have to ponder too much about. And the school wonders why our scores on standardized tests like the PSSA are going down. But of course, they throw "At The Bells" and other stupid programs into our classes now that barely help at all, and they're avoiding the problem in being able to transit students from one grade to another without a major change occurring in the way the student has to work and perform. Yes, eleventh grade should be harder than tenth, maybe by a far margin as it's really starting to prepare us for college with the introduction of our first AP courses as well as major tests like the SAT and the PSSA, but we shouldn't be totally loss and confused in our courses either. I'm having an extremely hard time trying to explain myself (I'm going to do good in peer tutoring; note the sarcasm) so if you can actually take anything useful from the bundle of text, then wow, you deserve an award.

I would probably go on about a lot of other topics, such as Jonathan Coulton, more school, World of Warcraft, etc. but I guess I'll save those for other days, hopefully Saturday and Sunday. But being that I have a lot of homework to do this weekend, who knows when you'll see an entry from me again. I still never talked about the blog to Joey in school, so I'll try to bring it up next week in psychology. As for now, I'm taking a long and relaxing break, and maybe actually go to bed early. That's another topic -- I need more sleep during the school year, but of course such is suited only for another time.

Have a good one.

The Donato's

Hola amigos! :) Senorita Caitlin es aqui escribir. Ooo now, mi espanol actually might be bien! ;P Well now, I just got back inside from a fresh walk around my large backyard. It's almost dark, but not black yet, it's at that stage of day where the sun is gone and everything is just "gray" and getting darker by the moment. That time of evening is actually growing as my favorite. I love how just before when I was outside the wind was blowing brisk at times and everything around you has this black and white shade to it. The clouds in the sky were threatening and bats circled overhead. Wow, I'm growing poetic here now in a way, but really, it was so, awesome. xD Anywho! My brother, dog, and I wandered outside for a late day walk to the deep back of our yard to see if we could hear any noise from the home football game currently going on. I live close enough to the school that this is very possible. I could be at the game right now I suppose if I chose to go, but I simply felt like staying home this time around to relax as this school week was exhausting in a way, considering it was a full five days. I guess I am still adjusting to the summer-school change. :P Well we wandered around and were able to hear the beat of the drums from the bandreally clear in one spot and picked up enough of a rhythm that we could maybe hum it if asked. Pretty cool huh? :) I stood and listened for a while, and when there is no drum playing you can mainly hear a mixed "commotion" sort of noise, associated with a lot of congregated people. :P

Accck, I am like so itchy now everywhere too. Every few words I have to stop typing to scratch my head, leg or foot. xD I probably got bitten by bug[s]. :P I am listening to some good music right now, thought I'd add that. Aside from Family Force 5, I have a sudden interest in the songs of the bands "Boys Like Girls" and "The Rocket Summer". I really adore the male voices in these bands, something about them, makes me feel good all over. :) hehe.

I know what I want to write about in this blog entry, but of course I am saving it after I get my basic weekly rambling out of the way. ;) I think I want to vent a little on school this week. I have nicknamed last week "the week of homework", and this one "the week of studying". Reasons being obvious, but true in my personal opinion. Last night I had four exams to prepare myself for. It was rough. I don't mind studying, it's like reading and then trying to remember what you read [if you think about it that way]. Well when I have four different subjects, I don't get to spend the proper amount of time I'd like to reviewing the topics. I have to shortcut and go over basics mostly, and sometimes not study at all for the subject I hope I know best. :P Well out of the four, A.P. Chem was the only quiz, and turned out being for me the one I worried most about. Let me say, that I absolutly adore the new teacher. The only problem was this quiz would be the first quiz of the year and I didn't know what to expect, yet predicted it'd be hard for me. I've learned from experience that you go into any class's first exam of the year blind, not knowing what to expect. For example, biology last year was deemed a test to cry over. Once you have taken the first though you at least know what to expect for the next all year. :P That's how I think anyway. I found the AP Chem quiz tricky for me out of the other things I took today. =/ Therefore I think, if that's just a quiz, how may the test be? I believe in my last entry or the one before I mentioned Pre Cal and AP Chem will be my personal most challenging classes, and so far I've been heading in the right direction with that prediction. :P

I am liking 11th grade though in a lot of ways. I like that my attitude over things I use to worry about in school before has deterioated. I feel more confident and not as shy to go ahead and do things myself anymore. I enjoy having English first period a whole lot. :P I like my health teacher much. I like using fresh clean notebooks. xD I like that I've been greeting past teachers whenever I see them. I like how there are so many new kids of which more I hope to meet. I like how Nicole and I only have each other in gym class. I like my new clothes and shoes [some I didn't even wear yet! :P] I like how I'm talking to more people, and other people even more. :]

Now to easily contrast: I miss Abby in my class, much. I don't know why I sometimes feel awkward to participate in Spanish. I have yet to figure out how to have gym 3rd period as opposed to having it last period my whole life. xD I will have huge muscles by June due to heavy book lugging. I miss Heather on the bus in the afternoon so much I could cry. :P I wish everybody wasn't sick with colds right now. :P I am always worrying the senior boys next to me at lunch will spill more stuff my way or bother my friends like was done to me in 7th grade. I think my high school is stereotypical to the term "high school." I hope nobody hears my stomache growl 4th period and on. I feel like "Drama" is missing from my life with no fall play and memories. Every single teenager is just that, a teenager, with teenager thoughts, teenager likes, and teenager gossip, yet every single one of us is the same. I observe too often. I'm ending this paragraph now. ;P

Finally, I want to exclaim that I am a HUGE Big Brother fan! Last night had to be one of the best shows of the season, yet that's hard to say because this season as a whole was amazing, and probably my favorite! :) My entire family actually united on this one, and we rooted for the Donato's ALL THE WAY! I adore Danielle and really like her. Usually every season of this TV show I'd pick someone I like but then they'd show me a side of them I had distaste for, changing my opinion to "eh, let's see who wins for fun, I have no preference." This summer = totally different! Each show I was literally on the edge of my seat rooting for Dick and Danielle Donato to make it. They are amazing at this game, and to think this duo of long lost father and daughter could reunite under these circumstances and blow the house to pieces is awesome. Sure, Dick used some very nasty and rude tactics, demoralizing the souls of every player, while Danielle won seven competitions and they pushed each other further. Last night after studying, watching BB was superb, hehe :) I was sooo hoping Zach would go home. [Sorry Zach fans.] As soon as Julie announced that Dick answered the last question right in the final round of that last HOH competition I just started cheering and I must have arm pumped my arm right out of the socket, hahaha. :D This secured Dick and Daniele in the final TWO. That's right baby, final TWO. Donato's all the way!! Doesn't even matter who wins the grand prize now [although I hope Dani does], just the fact these two, astrained father and daughter, rocked this house like no other, deserves a big shout out, YAY! :D

There you have it, my blog entry for the week. =) Good luck to my football team tonight, it should be the start of the fourth quarter around now. ;) Take care everyone. :]

Radically Random...

Big Brother 8 - Final Two - Dick and Daniele

JoCo

If this week is any clue as to what is to come, then this school year is going to keep me mighty busy. :P Therefore I've decided to try my best to write a blog entry at least every weekend, since that will probably be the only time I have the most "free" time. ;) I think I ended up doing that same thing last year too anyways. I'll either catch up on events of the past week or ramble on about nothing worth your time. xD However, it is a gorgeous day today, and I am sitting outside wirelessly on my laptop, in a hammock, underneath shady trees, (considering I am hot from riding my bike beforehand). ;P It's quite cool how I can be online in new and unusual spots. With a desktop you have to be at your, well, desk. With a laptop, wherever your lap can travel, it can travel too! :P

Anyhow, like I said, I was busy this week with school and then your everyday busy-ness. I did get online for a few minutes during thhe week here and there when I had time to spare, but I only did a few things. I was really happy to see each time I checked my e-mail, I would have 5, 10, sometimes even 20, yes 20, new Family Force 5 fan sign-ups at my brand new fanlisting. =) This morning I received the e-mail that my link is now officially on the TFL.org site, which is great. =) It was a long process to get this far actually. I had to apply for it like back in early July, wait 4 weeks for approval to get started, and then another 4 weeks until they came to check my finished product and add my new link. =) It was worth every minute though! Running a fanlisting is fun, so much fun that I applied for a Jonathan Coulton one a week later, which was just approved 2 days ago, and that I started and finished making all last night. :D Another cool thing about them is with the JoCo fanlisting, I really did open it just last night. I only told one friend and left a comment on JoCo's myspace about it, and this morning I got a sign-up already by a new person! :) They probably saw the comment I left or something, which is pretty neat. =)

Moving on. :P I went to the first home high school football game Friday night. I have to admit I think that game was one of my favorites. I had so much fun going that time. I'm not sure what made it different exactly, maybe the fact it was't freezing and I felt good helped that be so. ;) I like going to the football games now. It's something fun to do after a long school week, and plus everybody can socialize. I always said those games are like one big recess, like the kinds we had in elementary school, where everybody from school is there, you see all your friends, you walk&talk with your closest, and then you have the more sporty people playing sports [in this case football :P]. You see my point? Haha.

Ah! An ant was just crawling across my keyboard and walking on the mouse touch pad. :P Sheesh. It was small enough to fall between the keys, and I did not want that to happen so I'm like trying to pick it up, but then they just pinch you. :P Little bugger..

This week at school I had two issues. One was physical, the other cognitive. [I hope I'm using those words right!] My physical issue was that I suffered with an infected elbow cut all week [haha that sounds funny]. :P Really now, from tubing last weekend I scraped my elbow massively. Then I took poor care of it the day after and suffocated it, then it got infected. Hurt me like crazy because an elbow is an awkward place for a bad cut. [It was more like a scrape then a cut though.] I came to realize how often I move my elbow. For example, putting shirts on and off! :P You have to bend your elbows, and that hurt a little or just plain stung. Then when I had special creams and goop all over it, I couldn't put my elbow on things. That's even harder! :P Haha, I didn't realize how much I set my elbow down on tables when I sit, or when I go on the computer, or when I sleep my elbow lies on the bed! All those times I had to be in weird positions to prevent elbow goop drippage. xD Haha. It is a lot better now though, and has shrunk in size, and the best news is that it is finally scabbing! Which means it probably lost it's infection-part. [I hope ;)] Nice story huh?

The "cognitive" issue this week was that I could not, and still can not, think of my own good idea for an article to write in my school newspaper, since I am in Journalism and all. I went around asking everybody I knew for help. I still am undecided, so will probably resort to asking the teacher tomorrow what ideas are left open and which does she think I should do. :P That means, if any blog guests happen to stumble over my entry and have an idea to share, please comment and fill me in. ;)

I'm feeling hungry now so may go find something tasty to eat. :P Dont'cha love my randomosity in blogs? It's not even like I am anywhere near that way in person, or at least I don't think. :P My RR today will have to be, of course, the link to mine (and I'll say Steve's) Jonathan Coulton fanlisting! That way all other fantastic "nerdz" can score some points by clicking the beautiful link and expressing their personal JoCo pride. :D Hehe. ^_~

Radically Random...

-Do you know Mark Minelli?
-Are you a fan of fudgie whales?
-How about getting headaches in the basement?
-Can you dance like Johnson?
-Do you enjoy strolls around town?
-Did you take your steak taste better pill last night?

If you answered yes to all of the above, then you belong as a member at the Jonathan Coulton fanlisting!! :D

Click here, nooberz. ;)

The Cottage

I figured I'd better try to write again before the school week returns, since I never know how busy I'll be after school and don't want to end up waiting until next weekend to write about the weekend before. :P

I had a great time this weekend! :] My friend Nicole invited me to come with her to spend the weekend over her cottage at the lake. This was my first time there, and it really felt like I was on vacation in another state. x) Their cottage is adorable, with small rooms inside, and it was fun because I got to share a bunk bed with Nicole. When I first got there, Nicole and her friend Annabelle were riding their bikes so after showing me around a little, I got to go bike riding too. I did a lot of that while I was there, and it was really fun because you just have numerous little dirt side streets and paved parts of road that you can take up and down small streets lined with cottage after cottage [each with their own dock on the lake]. I enjoyed that, and it got me more familiar with the area since like I said, I had never been there so it was all new&exciting to me. :]

The three of us rode our bikes down the road, then into a large hidden field that had a basketball court. Annabelle had brought chalk so with all of us helping, we made the longest hopscotch I had ever been on. xD Phew, after hopping through that one you were heavily out of breath! :P We invented new hops, like the cube, and the ape. It was really fun. Once we were done, Nicole and I grabbed chalk and went crazy writing Family Force 5 stuff ALL OVER. xD We wrote FAMILY FORCE 5 really big on half the court, then while Nicole was writing in huge letters the names of all the band members, I went on the other side and wrote lyrics, song titles, and anything else like "CANs love ff5!" and "we met family force 5!" haha and just tons of things like that. :P By the time we were done the entire basketball court was covered in our markings. It was really great though, because we know other kids will come play there too and see. :P It was quite a work of art. ;]

We had to go back to the cottage then as it was getting dark. Nicole and I ate marshmallows around the fire, and I'm pretty sure more than half of the time was spent playing this one particular board game with Annabelle, who loved it. :P It was called like "Disney's Guess Words" game or something. Well all you had to do was get a one worded clue and then you have to name what Disney movie it's from. [Ex: Dwarfs; Snow White] Although many were much harder than that, haha. I liked the game, and it was really hilarious at times and got everybody laughing with the ridiculous guesses we'd say for clues we didn't get. :P

Once Annabelle went back to her neighboring cottage, Nicole and I stayed up until about 1:30 in the morning, which for us is early I suppose, [but you have to factor in your main component who was missing, Abby :P]. We pretty much just spent the time listening to music, doodling, and then talking a lot. Again, one of those great talks was had late into the night. =]

The next day Nicole, Annabelle, and I did a whole bunch of things. We started off by playing more of that Disney game, and then I was having tons of trouble calling my house [I must've tried 5857856 times. :P...turns out my phone/phone line was broken!] We went for a few more bike rides until lunch, and then after we ate it was time to go out on the boat. I was pretty excited because the three of us were going to go tubing. Nicole talks about how she goes tubing a lot [since her parents have the stuff] and we always wanted to go do it together sometime, and now we finally did and it was a blast. =] I had only been tubing once before, last summer, and it was a short ride and I was scared to get on at first, but this time it was a lot more different. Two tubes were being dragged behind the boat, Annabelle sat in one, Nicole and I lay on the other. We must have been dragged for an hour straight, at least, allll over the lake, over all these waves and bumps and then we'd go faster or slower suddenly. It was quite thrilling, haha, and loadsss of fun. I love water stuff, because I'm a fish, who loves to swim. xD We really did go for a nice long ride. I loved it! Some parts were SO bumpy though, and I had to hold on so tight because you're like flopping up and down. :P At one point, Annabelle and I jumped into the water and switched tubes. I had a hard time climbing up on a huge tube in the middle of the lake, but hey, I actually finally got into it and I liked that side, because you always flew up and over the boat's main "back" wave, and it's like you're flying! :P My arms felt really numb afterwards, I guess because they aren't use to being in such a tight position for so long. I also scrapped up my one elbow pretty bad and parts of my body are sore but other than that I didn't fall off and it went very well. ;)

After that we went swimming in the lake or floated around on the dock. We played more games outside and went bike riding more too. The whole time was really nice. :] At night people were even having fireworks go off, so that was pretty neat. You'd think it was the 4th of July, and it actually felt like it was too. ;P

Around dinnertime that day Nicole and I tried desperately to figure out how to play "Family Feud". :P We had a hilarious time at it. xD First, it was hard for us to set up, then asking the questions and getting the answers to show in the right slide view was harder. :P I remember this one time in particular, the question was like name 5 bands that consist of all family members. Well her and I are sitting there writing things like the Jackson Five and the Osmonds [etc etc] :P Well then we go to view the answer [hoping&considering we got the card in right] and the answer it shows says "Bottoms/hips". We were laughing so hard over this, because we didn't expect that to happen and it was hilarious at the time! xD Another time this happened again, with a question saying something like name specific battles fought in America, and then the answer showed up as "Soap." :P Hahahaa. It was bad, but then! Miss Annabelle is like so smart, she comes over later and figures it out better than we ever could because she has actually seen the TV show before, and she's only in 5th grade. xD Finally we started to play, and I really loved it, but we spent so much time fooling around over it that then I had to go shortly thereafter. :P

I really enjoyed spending the weekend with Nicole and Annabelle. :] I truly felt like I was on vacation somewhere far away, but in reality it's not that far where I was. A perfect place to spend my Labor Day weekend though. =] I hope everybody else enjoyed theirs as well!

Now again I must return to school, which might be challenging at first since the long weekend allowed me to think summer again. ;P I'll end here now, wishing you all a nice week back doing whatever it is you do. (;

Radically Random...

[very random internt quote! do you get it?]

"Youtube myspace and I'll Google your Yahoo!"

Blog Update: Money

After playing World of Warcraft for the majority of this holiday weekend, I have developed an idea for a new blog feature here at BFBv.2. You may recognize three new icons underneath the pictures of the fellow blog authors on the left sidebar. These icons, used in World of Warcraft, represent the three types of currency in the game -- copper, silver, and gold. So why are these icons placed here and what purpose do they serve?

The amount of money underneath the author's profile depicts how much money they have in their inventory. No, not real money, but fake money that they can earn by participating at the blog. The activity at the blog lately has been slow and only two blog authors out of the five post regularly, so I was desperate in trying to come up with a system to hopefully motivate the other blog authors to post more. Now, what exactly is this system and how can the authors make cash?

The currency system is as the following:

100 copper () = 1 silver ()
100 silver () = 1 gold ()

Thus the currency system ranges from copper to silver to gold (copper being the least expensive and gold being the most expensive).

The money acts more like points, and as of the current system, money cannot be spent. Having the most money represents having the highest score -- and thus the highest score wins. Think of it as a game that the blog authors are playing against each other. Now, of course, rules and standards will be created over time (such as copying and pasting something into a post that you did not write will not result in you getting a payout for the pasted section) and such updates will be announced publicly. Now for the final question: How does a blog author make money?

• Copper: For every word in a blog post, a single piece of copper is awarded. Spam will not be tolerated as well as pasted text that the blog author did not create. For example, Caitlin's entry "11th's Beginning" has 1606 words, which would be 1606 copper, or 16 silver and 6 copper.
  
• Silver: One silver piece is awarded every time a blog entry is published. Pieces will not be awarded for the entry should the entry contain anything meaningless (just created for the purpose of hopefully earning money). Going back to Caitlin's post "11th's Beginning", she would have a total of 17 silver and 6 copper added to her overall money amount after publishing the entry.
• Gold: One gold piece is awarded every time an author wins "Author of the Month". As an extra payout, the winner of the poll gains an additional 2 silver for each vote they have received in their favor.
• Bonuses: Ones who do not win "Author of the Month" but do receive votes will earn 1 silver for each vote they receive in their favor. Blog authors will also receive 2 silver every time they answer a question submitted to them through "Ask The Author". Blog authors will receive 10 silver every time they submit a story/poem from this point on.
  

Money will only be rewarded for blog posts published from September 2nd, 2007 and on. Older posts will not apply. Also, this post itself will not count as it's an introduction to the new system.

Good luck to all blog authors and may the wealthiest win!

Wisdom Comes, Wisdom Goes

Where did this past summer go? Honestly, all I remember is hanging outside with Craig sometimes, having sleepovers, doing community service for the National Honor Society, going to Hersey Park, going to my hunting cabin twice, and playing World of Warcraft on and off. Otherwise, the summer literally jumped from July 11th to August 29th and school was back in session before one could fully take in the relaxation that the summer vacation offers. This summer was a very carefree one, however, and after a stressful school year, it is well worth it to just sit back on the computer doing whatever the hell you want or go sit outside without that worry in the back of your head that you have tests to study for or homework to complete. But alas, the new school year is here and more worries, more stressful attitudes, and more challenges await. One of the things that I hate about my school's yearly schedule is that we go back to school before the holiday weekend (Labor Day). Honestly, what are we going to achieve in three days that can't wait until the following week? Well, I would've had that thought before this school year. Eleventh grade is no joke -- we got homework on the first day and more on the other two days, and I already have a quiz and a test next week. And I know deep down that this is only the beginning of the troubles that I'm going to run into in my education career. With classes like AP Chem, anatomy/genetics, English III, Spanish 3, etc., I'm going to have a lot of homework and studying to do. My AP Chem homework on the first day of school took three hours to complete! That's one class with one assignment -- imagine having homework in four classes and two tests in others on one day. See -- fun, eh?

This school year may introduce me with new wisdom, but at the same time, some old wisdom left me. Specifically, wisdom teeth. Yesterday I had my three wisdom teeth removed down at my oral surgeon in Scranton. I wasn't looking forward to the operation (mainly only because I had to miss a day of school which I disdain), but already having around thirteen to fifteen operations in the past on my birthmark and then the remaining scar, I was used to the procedure of getting the heart monitors hooked up to you, the IV in, and then the medicine that causes you to 'pass out'. However, it went by so fast and that I wasn't used to such. Mostly before I had my birthmark surgeries, they took their time when putting me to sleep. Maybe that was because I was younger then. Having this surgery, I sat down, the surgeon asked if I had any last minute questions to which I replied 'no', they stuck the monitors on me, IV was put into my blood flow, they inserted the medicine, and within a minute I was fast asleep. Just the speed of it all amazed me. And before I knew it, I was awake with a numbing sensation around and in my mouth and pretty doped up on nicotine. They took me to the recovery room in which I was only in for five minutes max, they went over the procedures that we had to carry out at home, and before I knew it I was walking out of the office back to the car. The pain didn't start coming until a few hours later when the nicotine began to wear off. I couldn't take any painkillers beforehand as my whole mouth and chin were numb (and I was drooling saliva and blood badly due to the gauze in my mouth) so in-between having to wait for the numbness to wear away before taking any pills for relief and the intensifying pain, I wasn't a happy camper. I was incredibly miserable, giving everybody a hard time, and at the peak of the pain, I was in tears. Finally I was able to get sense in my mouth to swallow a single painkiller and within fifteen minutes the pain finally went away a bit. When it did, I took another painkiller as a precaution to prevent that horrible pain from returning. And then, finally, my mouth stopped bleeding and I no longer had to place gauze inside which made me feel a lot better. I had to place ice on both sides of my mouth to control the swelling then (and I should be doing such now however I'm writing this blog entry so go figure). And I couldn't eat much yesterday because my stitched areas would hurt when the food slipped over to them and I couldn't really open my mouth wide enough and even had a hard time swallowing -- and this was simple and soft foods like this frozen snack, pudding, and soup. Today I can eat much better, thankfully, and I already ate about three puddings, a frozen snack, and Jell-o.

I would write more, especially about other things that I had on my mind, but I'm just in no mood to go on further. I just want to add quickly that I got to level 42 on World of Warcraft last night and I have a funny story to say about something involving my pet wolf on the game, but that will have to wait for a later time. Sorry about this poor entry -- didn't write in a while so why not write after getting a surgery when I had lots of free time on days beforehand? Yea, that's how I am, I guess.

Have a good one.