Merry Christmas :)

Had a wonderful Christmas :) merry christmas to all of you, and thanks for sticking by me to the end :) I think im going to stop blogging come next year....expect one, final blog come new years. But thanks to everyone who has read and commented on my blog :) Merry Christmas, and God bless you :)

Dont know what to wright about...

I really don't. High School sucks. I hardly have time in my day. I've all but lost every creative writing spark that I've ever had, I'm increadibly stressed all the time or upset over some little thing. Best thing in my life is Andrea...but even then, I'm just having a really really rough time. :( *sigh*

Personal

Idk what got into me to write this...suffice to say that it is Very, very personal....just a random poetic moment for me that I had to put down...again, very, very personal.

A dying sun sank between the dying waves, casting dark, beautiful hues across the water. The cries of gulls filled the air, a single, lonley ship bobbed among the waves. In our future stood a distant peer, but here and now, there was only my hand in hers, her hand in mine...that was all that mattered, all that would ever matter...

The sun shot colors of purples and orange across her skin, perfectly illuminating her, her body that she wanted to hide but that I loved with ever fiber of my being. Sea salt stained her lips when i kissed her, her hair fell in perfect locks down her neck, damp and tangled but more beautiful than ever. Her legs moves with a fluid movement that I have never seen in another girl nor will ever see again, more of an elegant dance than a simple stride. We walked together, hand in hand, looking over the waves crashing over the shore, enjoying every precious moment, knowing that there may never truley be a future, than every second was fragile and precious and every day would bring us closer together....or farther apart.

And so we walk towards that distant peer, hand in hand, and in this moment, this single, wonderful moment....nothing could seperate us. Together we were eternal, held together not by the physical bond of holding hands. Together we are held enternaly by love, and though the future is always shifting, this moment, this precious moment, is where we belong...together.

Again...very personal. I dont know what got into me to write this, but please, please respect what i put down. I mean, i wrote it already...idk, i just FELT like i had to say that. I guess im finally ready to face the consequences.

Not Going to Be Posting...

I'm so very sorry for my lack of posting and commenting, and the lack of posting and commenting that I will be doing in the next few weeks. I just have so much going on, I hardly have the time or commitment at the moment to keep up. I'm so very sorry :(

Hopefully things will clear up soon and I can get back to blogging...but for now i just dont think thats going to happen :(

America Praise Poem

wrote this for english- suggestions? a praise peom in sonnet format on America

America

You were once our stalwart guardian,


your motherly embrace a shield against the outside world.

You once held the torch of liberty,

an eternal flame that lit the heavens with the light of freedom.

Once you proudly stood tall amongst the turmoil of the world,

symbolizing all that was right and good and just.

Once you were America, our America. But no longer.

Now, the modern world has eroded your glittering exterior,

leaving naught but a ragged, empty husk of all that you once were.

The torch that once blazed proudly has grown dim,

What was once freedom and equality becoming greed and despair.

Those who once admired you with awe,

now look down at you with harsh contempt at what you have become

You were America, our America. But no longer.

Stressed

Well, the last weekend was homecoming weekend....and lets just say that its been one of the toughest weekends to get through. you dont have to read this, i wouldn't blame you, but i need to write this down somewhere :/ here goes nothing...

Wednesday was decent, last day of Cross Country. Confrence was alright...i had done the same course twice before, and my record for that course went from 23:40 to 21:16, which is close to my Personal Record, which is a pretty good way to end the season. That night we all went out to eat...Andrea wouldn't eat with us and just went straight home, which really upset me, but really worried me too. She said it was because of homework, but i think its mostly because she doesnt like the other girls, and wont confront them to be with me. I can understand that, but still, it makes me sad...other than that, after the meet was fun, we hacked into a guy's laptop and wrote a love note to him and then some guy went behind a dumpster to make a shank out of a spoon, before coming back when the garbage man yelled at him. We sand songs like Dont Stop Believing on the way back...so alright day.

I dont remember much of Thursday, but Friday was both good and bad. Our highschool stadium's lights wouldnt work, so we went to the local college's football stadium for our homecoming game. the first half was increadibly fun, but then andrea started shivering and coughing. then all of a sudden she started gasping for breath, and wouldnt accept a jacket or anything, and i just sat there holding her to my chest helpless to do anything while she was having what i think was an asthma attack. I was so scared....we eventually deciced to call her mother, and we got out of the game around the 3rd quarter. I held her hand the entire ride, and we eventually got a hold of an inhaler and got her back to breathing reguarly, but god, i was so scared. i crashed immeadiatley when i got home.

The next day was homecoming...needless to say i was nervous, it was my first offical dance, but i was ready nonetheless. Andrea and I went to a local tourist resort to get our pictures taken, and i was stressed because of how nervous i was for what was coming up, so i yelled at my mom to shut up when she was saying things behind my back to Andrea's mom....i feel aweful about it, and i think i really upset her :( I got repercussions for that...but ill elaborate on that later.

The "group" went out to eat before homecoming at a chinese resteraunt, the bill costed 70 bucks for 6 of us, but it was alright. Had some fun there....Joseph is halarious, and i wasn't quite as mad at tanner (though ticked that he decided to go to homecoming in the group of friends with the girl who asked him out, though not WITH her. ugh) We met up with the rest of the group at the high school....hung around for an hour before the party really started going...thats when things started to go downhill.

Lets just say that....while it was good that the group was there, it was supposed to be our night you know? Andrea and I, just the two of us. I wanted it to be about us just one night, about what I wanted just one time....she barly even recognized i was there at times, and when she did, she just made sarcastic remarks that weren't ment to hurt, and usually dont, but they did that night because i wanted it to be special....and besides, i was the one who had invited her, right? anyways....i had to get away from all that for a bit, and i told her that, and i came back to her crying.....which made me feel so bad....im not a bad person, i dont mean to hurt her, i love her, but it just tore me apart knowing that I hurt her....and then the coughing began. and another asthma attack. her mother came with the inhalor, and she was better for a bit. we walked out onto the dance floor....but it was like she was embarassed to be with me. everyone was slow dancing, and i tried to get her to sway to the music at least with me, but she just stood straight, ignored me, and talked to Kim. It embarrassed me and hurt me, standing there clinging to her hand while everyone else was slow dancing.....like, it hurt a lot. Then she had another asthma attack...and there was a fight...and we tried to get andrea out and find my mom's car, but we couldn't find her, and when we did, my mom was mad at me because she had parked and we were walking up and down the pick-up line, joseph and I holding andrea, who was on the edge of like going into shock or something, and all my mom could think about was how mad she was at me. I held andrea all the way to her house....i couldnt think about how mad or upset I was, only how worried i was, and how scared I was for her....we got her home and set her down on the couch and gave her the inhalor....dropped Joseph off (such a good friend), then i went home and fell asleep crying....such a long night.

Next day...yes there is more...decided to make it up to andrea by going uptown. On the way there my dad yelled at me for telling my mom to shut up...which i diserved i guess....and then uptown i fell apart crying right on a bench right beside andrea...and sure, she was there for me, but everyone who walked by looked at me like i was some kind of monster or a kid with terets. when i recovered, we walked to andrea's house....she lives right in town...and andrea started getting these aweful pains that came from coughing so much the pasted too nights, like a stressed muscle in her stomach or something. anyways, it was cramping up constantly for her, and that made me really, really worried and depressed :/ than, one of my friends, who will remain anonymous, began texting me. A little something about this friend: he used to be my best friend, but he is an upperclassman, and he has basically ignored me since high school started, to the point of scorning me. anyways, i think he saw andrea cry or her asthma attack yesterday, and he started telling me that she was emotionally unstable, that she was wearing me out and bringing me down, that she didnt belong in my life, that she was making me crazy, that whatever love i had for her wasnt real, that it was only a phase. I wanted to punch him (of course i couldnt), but i was also thinking if he was right...what was I supposed to think after last night? than andreas pains started getting worse and worse and I think she passed out a few times....she was asleep when i had to leave, but i was there to whole time with her, which i guess mean something. I dont know....im so confused....I love her, i know that, but i dont know whats happening.

Woke up this morning, its rainy out, dark, im tired, bus was late, almost fell asleep in english in health. writing this during lunch (yes, we have laptops in our school). The school week isnt looking too hot either.

Not an Angel

simple spur-of-the-moment poem i did during English for the heck of it- critique please?

Not an Angel

Twin feet planted on the eternal stone,
grounded by the grasp of mortal life.

Two hands reaching for a far-off dream,
a dream that will always be, but may never become.

A soul hounded by the fear of endless darkness,
but lacking the strength to fully embrace the light.

A light that always lies on the next horizon,
a light that all can see, all but him.

A being lost in the torrent of life,
lost without a cause, blind without a guide.

A mortal, trapped in the bonds of transient life,
destined to sin and repent in an endless cycle of humanity.

A sinner looking for a sign of hope,
finding none, and loosing all.

A Mortal, Not an Angel,
Not an Angel yet.

sorry for the delay in posting- finding it hard to write about stuff latley.

Short Update

Just updating on my week...

Loosing a friend for some reason or another that used to be my best friend, and I dont know why :/ its stressing me out! on the other hand, friend wise, the friends that have stuck with me are awesome :) sydney, kim, tyler, stephen, joseph, andrea and I are thinking about going to Tweetsie (a nearby amusement park) for their Halloween celebrations- should be a Ton of fun :)

Another cross country meet tomorrow...this one has 99 teams, and my race alone has 300 people. going to try to get sub-22 for this 5k with one other guy im running with- wish me luck!!

Been hanging out with Andrea a ton....Tuesday marked 4 months :) I'm really, really, really happy with her :)

School is REALLY stressing me out...to the point of headaches on some days. Luckily, its the weekend now...should help :)

Until Next Time!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Just breaking down my past few weeks into the Good, Bad, and Ugly...here we go

Good

Cross Country! I have to say, this is probably my favorite sport in the world. The team is so much fun, my girlfriend is on the team too, we travel to a lot of races around the state, and I'm pretty good for my fist year- today I PR'd (Personal Record- I beat my best time) with a time of 22 minutes 16 seconds for this 5k....best race I've ever ran. I'm hoping to get below 22 minutes by Conference, the regional race that marks the end of the season (unless you go to championships), and I'm thinking by Senior year, maybe even Junior, I'll be on the varsity team and getting sub-20. Hope for the best, right?

Andrea and I are doing fantastic...she means the world to me. Been seeing her as much as I can, every day in science and usually on the weekends too. And its awesome that she is in Cross Country :) been having a bit of problems...I'll talk about that later. But overall, fantastic.

Football games! Kind of our annual get-together for "the group" every other week. we have a great time :) and since im in XC i get in for free :) hoping to do a bit more with my group of friends later on, once my weekends become open.

Homecoming is the 26th of October...never been to one of these things, so I'm pretty nervous, but it should be fun. any pointers?

Andrea's birthday is tomorrow...I got her a nice necklace, cost me a good amount of money....its a cross made out of sterling silver with a gemstone set in the center. I hope she likes it :)

The Bad and the Ugly...

I cant really separate these, so determine them as you wish.

A friend of mine wanted to ask a guy out to homecoming...this guy used to be really nice, and Andrea's best friend, but he has gotten really mean lately. He told her that he doesn't want to go with her, because he wants to go out with someone who is WAY above his league, and told her to "better not get upset by it". when she asked why he even talked to her, he said "because he was bored". Yeah...I wanted to kill him for that. makes me sooo mad, seeing as she is one of my best friends >:(

Linking to the top one...I'm loosing a lot of friends to High School. One is a sophomore who used to be my best friend, but now he thinks he is too "cool" or "important" for me (even though I was his VERY FIRST friend in America), and is being pretty much a D-bag to me all around. it ticked me off...but if he wants to be like that, its his loss, I dont think any of his friends will ever be as good of a friend as I was, but if he wants to be that way, he can go for it. I'm better off without him. Another friend is the one who was mean to the girl above me, and another is a guy I've known since kindergarden who is leaving me in the dirt to fit in. At least I have Joseph, Kim, Sydney, and Andrea....kind of the only people left in our "group" by now, and my best friends at that. Its just upsetting to see so many good friends leave me behind...at least I know those four wont do that....best friends you could ever have.

Andrea and I have been going through a real rough spot this past month, its like I dont know if she cares for me at all, she keeps running off with her friends and forgetting about me....but dont worry about that, we've talked it out, and I dont think it will happen again....I just dont like the friends she is hanging out with, they are not good friends, they use her and than dump her when they feel like it. At least I'm still here for her...always will be. I just dont want to repeat the last month.

And thats all for now

Back to School

First off, sorry about my lack of posting- school has kept me very, very, VERY busy. To be honest, High School isn't all that bad- boring and frustrating, but I'm getting back into the usual hang of things as far as school is concerned. Well, as far as a breakdown on the last two weeks, here goes nothing...

School, in and of itself, pretty much sucks. I have no classes with any of my friends, I pretty much sit at lunch by myself (All my friends have 3rd or 4th lunch while I have 1st), and I have a buttload of homework every night. Band is boring as heck, Health is annoying, English is okay, and Technology is either fun or incredibly boring. I guess the best part of the day is at the end- I have Science with Andrea, and I sit right beside her, and that makes what would normally be a boring class the best part of the day. I have Cross Country every afternoon (more on XC later) with Logan and John, who are really fun to run with. Andrea has joined XC too, which is fantastic, as I can see her more :D but, im wondering how she is holding up....I dont know if she is having a really good time or if it makes her miserable :( But, I think its special that she joined Cross Country to be with me- and im not about to forget that.

Already finished one book in English, Of Mice and Men. Pretty good book, short...we had to do annotations or essay questions every night, which is annoying, but its not too bad. Mice and Men is incredibly sad at the end- I don't want to spoil it, but it was depressing :( English isn't that bad- I sit by this one girl, Kat, and she is pretty cool (and no, not nearly as amazing as andrea before you get any ideas.)

In Band we just do breathing exercises and scales the first hour and only actually play for like 45-30 minutes. Which sucks horribly. Our band director wants to have us join in with the marching band in football games and everything, but really, im already deciding to just quit softmore year. band just isn't fun anymore.

Health is on an alternating A/B schedule with band for 2nd period, but its incredibly annoying. Our teacher is like some woman who is in the army reserves, and she is mean....like, incredibly mean. One of my worst classes.

Lunch is....awful, for the most part. I sit with a group of people who I used to play basketball with, seeing as their the only people i know in that lunch (except for kim, who sits with me every other day- she has an A/B lunch plan), but they dont really pay attention to me. Worst part is that a kid who used to be one of my best friends, he is a softmore, sits in the same lunch, but since highschool came last year for him, he has just gotten more and more egotistical, mean, and generally a jack*** to me. His loss.

Fundamentals of Technology can again, either me really fun or really boring. On one hand, i dont know anyone there (except for one of Andrea's friends, but only slightly) and the teacher can't teach worth crap, but on the other hand most of the kids are pretty wild and fun, and if we are doing a project (which we do a LOT) they are generally interesting. so, depends on the day.

I love science...the teacher is pretty fun, doesn't teach us crap, but im happy because I get to sit with Andrea. Pretty much what I look forward to in the day.

Cross Country is amazing- I think I've found a sport that I really, really like and that just clicks, unlike basketball or soccer. Basketball I loved, but I just sucked at it...soccer wasn't allt hat fun for me after a while, though i guess i was good at it. XC is both fun and I'm pretty good at it, if I may say so myself. We practice 5 days a week, varying between low key days, like a medium run and exercise circuts, to things like tempo runs and hill workouts. I've been in two competitions so far- Clash of the Classes, a county race that is is basically just you vs other freshman boys, that kind of stuff. I got...7th or 8th in that race with a time of 13:35 for a 3k race. And I got a medal :D The other competition was this weekend- it was farther away, so we spent the night at a hotel friday night, which was a lot of fun :) there were 4 people in my room, and only 2 beds, so as usal frushman gets the floor, last shower, etc- but it was all good, they were pretty friendly to me :) hanged with andrea that night a bit- but I pretty much just crashed at 10:30 to get some rest for the race the next morning.

The race was a regional race, so, 13 or so schools divided into six races- championship, invite, and open, boys and girls for each. It was a 5k race- and it was TOUGH. the course was pretty hard- the vetrans from the previous years had named all the hills you came across previously, which were Horseshoe Hill, Seizure Hill, The Wall, and Hill Hill, in that order. yes, our vetrans are pretty crazy if your wondering ;) Horshoe hill wasn't bad- seizure was tough, but it had a nice downhill to gain back momentum after it. the wall was pretty much straight up, and just kept going- probably the hardest. Hill Hill is what one of the seniors called a "joke hill"...your about to reach the end, but no, before that you have to go through HILL HILL- its like a big slap in the face. its not bad, but since your almost dead by then, its TOUGH. Still, I ran the race without stopping, got 115th place out of 213 in the open race with a time of 23:32, which is pretty darn good if I may say so myself. Im hoping to break 22 or even 21 by the end of this season- maybe even 20, but thats really tough...5 minutes a kilometer, ugh! My school got 2nd place out of all 13, which is really good. Andrea looked like she was going to pass out after her race- I pretty much had to carry her to the shade so she could sit down afterwords. and yes, I am that good of a boyfriend ;) Both races were woth it- you should have seen us before the race! each race, teh guys all gather in a circle and start chanting "mudcats" (our team name) before ripping off our shirts, sprinting to the starting line, all while screaming at the top of our lungs. we are that intese lol :) but it really does help get out all the nervousness you have, plus it intimidates the other teams :) you try to not look scared when there are 50 some high school boys charging at you screaming like something out of braveheart! :D

Today I worked for...8 hours maybe clearing trees from that last ice storm last Christmas- and yes, we are STILL cleaning up from that. anyways, I got about 60 bucks off that- enough to buy this new video game im looking forward to, a Halo game, which comes out the 14th. A certain, special somebodies birthday is the 26....need to save up from that, but what do you guys think would be a good present to get her? something special, but preferably under 50 bucks ;)

And thats the last two weeks. until next time!

The Last Day of Summer

Most beautiful song I've ever heard- When i listen to this song i see my whole life flash before my eyes, the good times and the bad times. It's just all there and yet even though this song gives me a melancholy feeling it also fills my soul with a yearning for the past. I just love this song but i do hate the last day of summer. i think we all do.

Well, this is it. the last day of summer. I guess the above song explains it the best- kind of a bittersweet ending. I mean, on one hand, I cant wait to start highschool- but on the other, as you well know, this summer has been the best ever. I dont really want to let it go. going to do what I did last year- a list of the highlights of my summer, along with things that I wish I did.

Highlights

- Last day of school, hanging out at Mellow Mushroom with what would later become 'The Group', and a great graduation to boot

- The Bonfire, giving one final goodbye to the school year and starting off summer with a bang

- Having andrea say "yes" to asking her out- btw, today marks 9 weeks together :)

- The countless times that "The Group" spent the day uptown during the summer

- The Third Of July- hanging out with andrea and logan at the uptown celebrations and watching the fireworks as the day came to a close

- Doe River Gorge with logan and joseph- hanging out at the lake, the zipline, 'the blob', and especially paintball. one of the best times I've spent with the guys

- Bo's with 'The Group' -laser tag, bowling, arcades, mini golf, and just a whole bunch of fun. one of the best days of the summer

- The times spent uptown with andrea or at the movies- every day with her was special, especially spending that last day (today) with her.

- Group Movie with the group- watched 'Inception' after going to CC's for dinner

- Hanging with Andrea for her brother's birthday all day

- Spending 3 days at logan's house, was pretty fun

- The number of times spent just hanging at logan's house of my house with joseph logan and me

- All Nighter with Marcus playing Xbox until around 4 or 5

- Spending the day with Andrea at Mount Mitchell, another one of the best days of the summer, she was just so happy, it was so good to see.

- the number of times I went running with Logan

- The Highlight of my Summer- not going to say it, its going to remain a mystery, but for people who know me I think they'd know by me not including it in this list

as far as disappointments go...

- not going on enough hikes or camping or anything with my dad. he's been really busy, so not his fault, but I'd like that anyways

- having marcus lave for maine for a month and him never coming with the rest of us to anything the rest of the summer

- the 4th of July. if you really want to know about it its in one of my previous posts

But other than that...nothing else.

The New School

I'd post pictures, but for security reasons I wont. Im going to WHS, which normally is a really crummy school, but we got a brand new school this year! its great, HUGE school, really nice facilities: 2 gyms, 3 floors/3 wings, great cafeteria (with a local pizza place catering pizzas every day, cofee (with flavour shots!), gadorade, soda machines, a full cafe line- its great), great football field (which is right next to the greenway, making cross country epic), baseball diamond, soccer field- everything. plus a ton of clubs and high school sports.

XC (cross country) already started about a week ago- its hard, but really fun, as one of my best friends (logan) is in it and a bunch a kids a know also. we run around 45 minutes non stop every day, one a number of the mountain trails along the greenway, then depending on the day will either do sprints, tempo runs, or workout circuits. so, really, really tiring. but its worth it- im getting in great shape between that and this summer's running. We have a lock-in at the school for XC, which is basically just and all nighter for all of us- should be a ton of fun! our fist XC "meet" (aka race- we practice every weekday with optional saturday morning practices) in in about two weeks, but we are one of the best teams in the state anyways. Im thinking we are running a 5k- should be interesting. Andrea may join cross country, but im not sure.

Anyways- wish me luck for the beginning of high school. going to be fun...I hope. I just hope that i'll be able to stay with andrea and the group throughout high school, but we'll see.

Until next time

2 more weeks

Yeah, thats right, (less than) to more weeks until summer is over. which sucks, seeing as most kids get into september and we go in at we get in during the beginning of august. Been trying to cram everything we (as in, the group) can into these last few weeks, things like going to a lake, another bonfire, and heading to Skateworld (the local skating ring which may or may not be still arround as none of us have been for at least 4 or 5 years), along with the usual movies, uptown, pool, etc etc. All in all I guess I'm not too upset about school starting back up- I've had a really, really good summer (between hanging out with my logan and joseph, the group, or just andrea), and I am kind of excited about freshman year. because, lets face it, the school I was in kind of sucked. It as the same school, same 35-40 people every year, for nine years between kindergarden and 8th grade. you kind of get sick of the same thing year after year, and I'm just ready to see some few faces, do some new things, and altogether get out of that pit.

Still, i've had a great time with the group this summer, and I don't want to "drift away" from them, especially andrea, in high school. Kind of worried about that, but I guess we'll just have to see how things turn out. My only regrets this summer is the lack of things I've done with my family, such as hiking with my dad, running with my mom, or any summer vacations. Hopefully that will change soon.

Now that the group is back in town we can finally get things going again (as opposed to the last two weeks). Last Tuesday there was a gas leak in town- nothing major, but they evacuated uptown, which is where andrea lives. Logan, Andrea and I generally just hanged out at my house all day, which was really fun, but altogether not that eventful. Went with most of the group to a local(ish) entertainment complex called Bo's down the mountain on friday- had a really, really great time :) We were there from 1 to around 10:30- I have no idea how we managed to keep ourselves entertained that long, but I'm sure it had something to do with the four or five games of laser tag, multiple trips to the arcade, two bowling games, a game of put-put (which involved me sprinting down the highway to retrieve a runaway golfball and almost getting hit by 2 or 3 cars), and going across the street to CC's for dinner. best part of the day was seeing Andrea so happy- she was in a smiley, bubbly, giggly mood that was good to see after so many days uptown seeign her shy and quiet. that above anything else made my day :) And yes, when it came to doing another game of laser tag with the guys or playing DDR with Andrea, I stuck with andrea without a second thought. Aren't I a good boyfriend? :P

Last two days involved pool on sunday and uptown yesterday. Nothing too eventful, except one of the aforementioned girls still being a pain in the relationship between andrea and I, but neither of us are taking that crap anymore. Just hanged out today, like usual, with a good book and a glass of orange juice on the back deck wasting the day away. not too bad if I may say so myself :)

Pretty much going to give up on ascension. I just can't write anymore, not with everything going on....ah well, I may pick it back up later. But until then I'm having too much fun otherwise :)

Mudbound

Well, my days have been packed this summer, which is mostly why I haven't been posting much. A few interesting things have been happening in the past weeks outside of the usual (uptown, movies, pool, etc) with friends, but I haven't really been writing much to be honest. figures, but oh well.

Well, good news is that the problems I was having between Andrea and I are pretty much over. I've been talking to her a lot, and we've both agreed to be better in our relationship...and from what I've seen so far, there has definitively been an improvement. I am worried about how we'll be able to see each other in high school though...we may or may not have the classes that we share in the same semester, but I am hoping that we'll at least have lunch hour together. High School Orientation is the 5th of August (New School!), and we get to find out which classes we have, how to get there, etc. i'll probably make a bad first impression off my teacher's from the start, but thats become the norm for me. If we don't have any classes (including lunch) with each other, I'm just going to have to put forward a real effort to see her afterschool and on weekends. Still...there is only around 300 kids in the freshman grade, so its possible that we could have a few classes together.

Really need to get my act together for running. Cross County starts about a week before school, but my mother won't go running with me at night at all and my friend Logan isn't running with me either. and its not like I can drive myself to any good running trails, and the hill that I live on is horrible for running anyways. *sigh*

On another note, one of my friends in going to be dating a girl who's...not the best girl in the world. As in, she seems really nice on the outside, but I've found out the hard way that she's not the best person in the world. Its not like I can tell my friend that though when he likes her so much...I guess he'll just have to figure out the hard way. *sigh number 2*

Two books I have to read for 105 english: Beloved and Mudbound. Mudbound it really good, but beloved it a lot harder...just sticking with mudbound for the moment. kind of worried about our english teacher though....both books are pretty racist, and seeing as I live in the south (the northern south at that, but the south) with plenty of rednecks, there is a probability that our teacher is racist. known a few teachers who have been like that, mostly because we're a mainly white county. still, it should be interesting to see what happens.

Thursday I went to this lake with two of my best friends, logan and joseph. Was a really fun day, I'll give you a rundown that you can skip over if you want.

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Well, once we got to the lake, logan and joseph immediately went for the zipline. I didn't want to go, so I ended up sitting around for an hour. when they got back, we went into the lake, did a LOT of swimming. we did this thing called The Blob. where on person is on one end of this inflatable thing, around 20 feet long, and the other person jumps on it from like 6 feet above from a diving bored kind of thing to try to knock them off. After that we went to the deep end, played King of the Hill on top of some floating pyramid thing with a bunch of other kids our age, then took turns trying to touch the bottom of the 14 feet deep end (none of us managed it). by that time we tried to catch the train, it was full, so we went around 2 to check out the paintball field.

by the time we got to the paintball field (it was a looong hike) it was like 2:30... we got all of our stuff on (masks, paintball guns) and joined the 3:00 game. the 5 of us were paired with the two best players "green shirt" and "red shirt" because we were "inexperienced." We ended up doing covering fire, flanking, dodge an roll...all that military stuff. the 5 of us took 3/4 or the people out (it was one hit elimination)...but we only had 500 "bullets", about enough for 3 rounds for all of us. most of us were out of bullets by the first round.
the second time, we were placed all by ourselves against the 7 other people...and ended up tying only because we couldn't take our red shirt and green shirt within 15 minutes...I was hiding behind a tree for most of it as two of them kept shooting nonstop at me, before logan and joseph came and literally pulled me out of there.
the third time was the last round, and it didn't matter how many times you got hit, you kept playing until you ran out of bullets. that was FUN, but brutal...I was locked in a fire match with both red shirt and green shirt the entire time, and I got clipped a couple of times because of it...pretty proud about holding out against both of them at once though. Logan and Joseph eventually got to where I was taking cover in a ditch, and the three of us managed to fight them all back.
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So, overall, the lake was a fantastic time. The past week has been more uneventful...everyone has been gone for the usual July vacations, and I only managed to get two things done this week with other people: watching The Lord of the Ring (the third one) at my house with Kim, Logan, and Andrea, and hanging out uptown with andrea from 12 to 5 on thursday, mostly just talking, but it went really well. one of the funnier moments (out of many, andrea is a really funny girl) took place where I was sitting on a bench with andrea in one of the more secluded parks in the town, and some random guy that neither of us knew just comes up and says "you should be glad you have such a great guy, he must be really sensitive to bring you down here" and then just left. it was realllllly weird, but really funny.

Well, 3 more weeks of summer left- gah! its going by so fast! Hopefully the next few weeks will bring along some good memories :) thinking about seeing either Despicale Me or Inseption at the movies with andrea tomorrow...which one do you guys suggest?

until next time

Comittment and Confusion

Okay...quick question: what is it with girls and being constantly confusing? especially when your in a relationship with one of them. Just think on that question for a bit as I explain my last few days starting...a week ago from this post.

Wednesday my girlfriend, Andrea, came back from the beach. Texted her for...5 hours? while she was driving back....I hate texting, but you know how it goes, and besides its always good talking to her. Went to see Knight and Day with her that night...good movie, its pretty funny and has some good action scenes, so its worth watching, made me laugh a few times here and there. Andrea was pretty quiet...she has always been kind of shy though, and I guess that she was tired from the ride back from the beach. Still, I was kind of worried about her anyways.

Thursday...was interesting. I went uptown with a couple of friends, the same group as usual: Logan, Joseph, Stephen, Amelia, Kimmy, Sydney, Andrea, and Daniel, making a grand total of 9 of us (sometimes there is a bit more of us there, sometimes less.) You know, people ask me why I keep going uptown day after day, but in reality actually doing something with friends on an almost daily basis has really improved my summer over what it was last year. Anyways, my main problem is that there are two girls in particular that are, well, blocking me from interacting with Andrea. Normally its not a big deal, but they are constantly clinging to her and making it so that I can't get close to her at all. I mean, it shouldn't be a problem, but it bothers me a lot.

Nothing happened really Friday, but Saturday was fantastic. Went uptown to see the 4th of July parade (which, indecently, is on the 3rd) and town festival with Logan and Andrea, and had a blast doing so. Generally just hung out, enjoyed the festival to the fullest- and the parade was fantastic by the way. Went to Andrea's house afterwords, had a ton of fun there (and yes, I am still the champion of Guitar Hero, but both my girlfirend and her younger brother gave me a run for my money.) Andrea's family brought me to see the fireworks at the Country Club afterwords, and I met back up with Logan there too. The Firewoks were spectacular...what really made me happy though was that Andrea was in her rare moods where she's giggly, happy, and pretty silly...its good to see her like that, having fun that is. All around one of the best days of my summer, which is already the best summer of my life.

Sunday was the 4th, independence day...went to a party with most of my aforementioned friends, and I had fun for around half of the party. I did notice though that those two girls were constantly getting between Andrea and me again, and as much as I tried to get close to her they would constantly push me away from her...the few times I did manage to be with her she seemed rather distant. Things really started to go downhill when the person who was setting off the fireworks tipped over the mortar, and all the fireworks went off around 20 feet from the porch that we were on. A couple of my friends managed to get down there and pull the guy out but...well, I freaked out. completely froze. I feel really, really, really bad now, mostly because Andrea was right beside me and I didn't move to help her or protect her or anything, and she could have gotten really hurt. I don't know...I was just so scared, and I couldn't think straight. I don't think andrea minded at first... she was really scared too and she's the understanding type. but then one of those two girls pulled her aside once the fireworks stopped, and andrea didn't talk to me the rest of the night...i don't know what they said, but I think they made it so that andrea was hurt by something I did, probably freezing by the fireworks. I just felt really bad for the rest of the day, really alone, and I left with Logan early. I just couldn't handle it.

From Monday to Wednesday (today) my family had to leave for a family emergency and I lived with Logan (who lives only around a 10 minute walk away) for the week so that I could stay behind to take care of the pets and everything. Andrea said that she felt really, really bad for the previous night, but it still really, really hurt for her to ignore me like that...but I'm more mad at that one girl who is trying to get between us and who pretty much caused andrea to ignore me. It happened again yesterday...one of the two girls was being really stubborn uptown, and logan, kim and I just got fed up with it and left, we didn't want to deal with it anymore. The thing is...I fully expected andrea to follow, seeing as she was being annoyed by it to, but she didn't follow us at all. I don't know...I guess those two "friends" of hers are more important than me (even though she keeps saying that I'm the best thing thats ever happened to her) and well...It hurts, a lot. I mean, I know that she really, really likes me and wants to be around me, but those two girls are keeping us apart...I've tried to stop it, but I only succeeded in getting one of them really, really mad at me and probably will try harder to keep us apart. Andrea is just really, really shy around other people (not around me, she is really outgoing when its just the two of us) and I think that its less of her fault than the fault of the two girls that are getting between us. It just makes me so mad and I feel helpless with the number of ways I'm trying to get close to her that keep failing...really, I don't know what to do. Andrea is one of the most important people in my life, and both of us Like each other a ton...but if I don't do something about these two girls, than...i don't know what will happen. I don't want to loose Andrea, but I can't see a way for us to be together with those two girls getting in the way...I need help is what I'm trying to say.

Hopefully the next week will be better.

The Boys of Summer

Can't figure if I like this summer or hate it. Well, On the good side, I've been together with my girlfriend for about a month now (which is pretty good, seeing as most kids break up after a week). She's been gone twice though- one time for a missionary trip, and now for the beach. But there is still half of the summer to go (and I HATE going back to school in August- ugh!). 4th of July (Independence Day) is coming up- you know what that means: Americans get drunk, are in the possession of firework, and end up burning a lot of stuff. And seeing that we live about 30 minutes from the Tennessee border, which has kinds of fireworks illegal to sell (though not to use) in almost every other state, it gets pretty...eventful. Going to a party with a couple of my friends after seeing the 4th of July Parade with Andrea in the afternoon- should be an eventful day.

Then again, Eventful pretty much describes almost every day in my summer. Going to the movies, bowling, heading uptown, swimming, work for 10 dollars and hour (which inevitably spend the next day), running to get in shape for Cross Country, or just hanging out with a good book- great, great summer. Nothing much to add, there has been a number of eventful incidents in the last month for example:

-Doing a competition with my friend to see who could text 100 words while swinging (harder than you think!)
-First date with a girl, ever...went pretty well
-Laughing at my friend when his cell phone went off in the middle of a movie
-Playing Cops and Robbers across the entire town
-Staying up until 1 or 2 each night to text my girlfriend or talk to her over facebook
-Singing at the top of my Lungs to the Entire Journey album with my friends
-Taking Hikes in the breathtaking beauty of the Appalachian Mountains
-Sitting on the back deck watching the sun set than staring up at the stars
-Going Mini-Golfing and failing miserably (56 on 18 holes!)
The list goes on and on.

But, with all the good things, you'd be surprised with all the drama I'm dealing with. Long story short, it seems like a lot of people are worried about a lot of things, and they go to me to talk about it. Not that I mind, but its so hard to when you don't know what to do or say. Ugh :/

Well, thats my update. I'll get another one out after the 4th!

Edit: sorry about not being able to get anything of Ascension up- I'm stuck on a part I'm writing at the moment and what I have written isn't all that good. Why does writing have to be so hard?

The Endless Weekend

Thats Summer for you: One, big, long, and seemingly endless weekend. A time to practice the few luxuries of freedom in life before the weekdays of school inevitably return.

Yeah, sorry about that, I'm still in writing mode. Believe it or not, I'm actually making progress with Ascension. Here's part of the opening that I've been working on all day: (constructive criticism is appreciated)

The sky was a burning red- a twisted testimony to the destruction that had plagued the very land under his feet in an age long past. Sila’threan it was called by his people: The Nightmare Land. It was a realm that was void of any form of Fae or Kai, an ashen waste where the tainting presence of the Void still lingered, enough to drive a being mad and into a feral state of existence. It was these lands that served as the forbidden grounds of his people, the one place where his nomadic race dared not tread. It was these lands that he called his home, and it was these lands that he had survived in a tortured existence for decades in hope of escaping the horrors of his past: horrors that he wanted to forget, but was forced to remember.
Scourge they called him; Bane, Destroyer, Exile. He had many names from all corners of the realm of Intai’sei, enough so that he had long forgotten his birth name. To the few that remembered his existence, he was known as Vaec, “The Forsaken One.” He had ceased to care: he was stripped, an empty, soulless husk, a Void. Yet it was this emptiness that gave him strength, allowing him to survive where all others could not. The only thing that kept him going was a simple, driving hatred against those who had wronged him all that time ago. It was this rage that kept him moving through every agonizing step in this hellish wasteland, every footfall shooting tendrils of pain through his very being. Rage was all he was now, Rage and Hatred, and one day, yes, one day, he would have retribution.
With agonizing effort he raised himself to his feet, the pain of the simple movement nearly forcing him back to his knees once more. Even in his empty state, the Void’s lingering presence still pained him, yet he had come to live with it: they were one and the same after all, and it was his emptiness that kept him alive where all other should fall. He raised his eyes to the sunrise that lay on the horizon, painting the overhanging clouds a blood-red hue. East was his goal, as it had been for year upon year. He knew not what drove him, yet some supernatural force kept moving his feet towards the blood-red sunrise that brought every agonizing day. And he obeyed, his rage, his hatred, and his pain driving him ever forward.

If you remember the background to Ascension (the fae and kai thing?) you will know that every lifeform on the plane of existence that is known as Intai'sei is made of either the life energy of Fae or Kai (with the Insetti being sentient beings of Fae and the Kantras, Vaec's species, of Kai.) Vaec, or "him", was stripped of that energy years ago, yet didn't have the good fortune to die. For some reason, he survived, and became a barren husk of a being who's sole purpose lay in revenge on those who had wronged him in such a way. He was exiled to the Nightmare Lands, a wasteland that in tainted by a Void that was caused in a great clash between Fae and Kai ages past. This Void that is present in the Nightmare Lands feeds on Fae and Kai energy, which would lead to the death of any lifeform that stepped foot onto the realm's barren ground, but Vaec is spared from death due to having no life energy to be consumed. The Void still causes him unbearable pain as it attempts to feed on him, but as Vaec's life does not rely on Fae or Kai energy, it cannot kill him. So, how does it sound?

On to life. Lets see... girls (or, in this case, one girl), hanging uptown or at the movies with my friends every other day, running, or summer work (mowing the lawn, stacking wood, etc) is dominating every waking hour of my day, so I'm pretty dang busy. Since the Bonfire Saturday, I've had friends hang out at my house on Sunday, hanged out uptown on Tuesday, went to see a movie on Wednesday, experienced my first kinda-date on Friday, and went uptown on Saturday. So yeah, busy week, and my nights are no better, being wasted on Xbox, facebook, and texting (often at the same time). Haven't had much time to write, or update my blog, but I'll try to do my best this summer.

That's about it for this week. Haven't been arrested by the police or anything, so thats a plus, considering that it's summer. Oh, and as a last note, sweet child of mine by Guns and Roses, but this time in orchestra version, and without words. Its actually very pretty, believe it or not.

Its My Life

Music Video sucks, but the lyrics show exactly how my life is going right now- EPIC. This summer, only 2 days old, is already the best summer of my life.

Its my life- It's now or never.
I ain't gonna live forever,
I just wanna live while I'm alive

Friday was the first day of summer...got a call from one of my friends, Kim, telling to move my butt over to the pool ASAP. managed to get there with another one of my Friends, Logan, and after spending an hour hanging out at the pool (and yes, Logan and I were the only guys hanging out there- we are such players haha) 4 of the six of us decided to go grab some lunch as some tiny cook-out shack in the market courtyard. We later met back up with Andrea and Amelia, the other two girls who decided to stay at the pool a bit longer, and spent the rest of the day at the park. Played Tennis, Basketball, Volleyball, went to the Market, and generally just hanged out for 6 hours straight. Best Friday in recent memory.

Saturday night was equally as epic. 10 of my friends, along with my sister and two of her friends, had been planning a summer party at my house for a week or so. And dang, it didn't disappoint. Everyone got there at around 7 or so, and the party itself lasted until 11:30 or so. Highlights of the day include burning old homework in the firepit that I had been building for around a week, having Tyler catch a firework in the air while it was going off, tossing pop-its and soda bombs in some kind of free-for-all war, trying to snatch the beer cans while the parents weren't looking (and failing), playing rock band with 10 or so people switching off, getting high of helium balloons, playing capture the flag in the dark (with one of my friends and I using our shirts as flags), hiding under an old canoe during said capture the flag match, laughing our butts off as one of the guys and one of the girls went into the dark without a flashlight to "hide the flag" and laughing even harder when they started to stutter when denying that they did anything, playing truth-or-dare at around 10:30 or 11, and roasting marshmallows over an open fire.

Great, great day, especially seeing as (personal thing that my parents can skip if their reading as I've already told them to, no offense, really, not get too involve with my personal life) I was hanging out with the girl that I really, really like most of the day (which is more of a friends-with-benefits thing seeing as she's already dating some other guy, although I told her that I liked her a while back and she assumed as much a bit before that) and a bunch of my very best friends all at once.

So, in short, a great, great start to one of the best summers of my life.

Bittersweet Ending

This has been the first time that I've ever cried about leaving school. Never, not even in Kindergarten, did I ever cry. But, well...I don't know. The best word to describe it is bittersweet. But I'll go with the good stuff fist.

Today was the last day of school for the 8th grade (everyone else gets out tomorrow). The school day was just us hanging out, going tot he park, eating ice cream, and preparing for the graduation that would take place later on that day. Got back home, worked for around 2 hours with clearing out the fire pit for the bonfire I'm going to have Saturday as a kind of summer celebration, than had a shower and dressed up in some snazzy dress clothes before going to the graduation at our school at 6:00. After chatting up with some friends and girls (who looked amazing in their graduation dresses), I was required to lead the line of 8th graders to the auditorium stage (which I guess is a big honor- I dunno). After we got seated, all the teachers made these big long speeches about how great of a class we were (and I have to admit, we are an awesome class) before handing out medals to all of us for "such a great year". Then they started with the awards: you know, highest academic achiever, best singer, etc etc. I ended up with some long service award for both band a strings (a shiny nice medal to boot) and, most surprisingly of all, the athletic award. I mean, I'm pretty athletic, but no where near what some of the other people in the grade are. Moment of shock there...the rest were pretty predictable, with the exception of a few here and there (one of my friends got the geography award while the other got the...friendliest person award? best student? something like that. Proud of them both) The teachers started actually crying when they gave an award to honor a teacher who died a while back (the one which my second friend, Kimmy, got), which made me feel really, really bad. Then a couple of chorus kids started singing In My Life by the Beatles, and I almost choked up right then and there. two or three started crying in fact. it was really, really well done.

After that was the graduation party. They started playing the hour-long 8th grade video while we were eating on the projection board, which had video clips and pictures from kindergarten up to 8th grade. that was about it...my friend Andrea started crying, so did Kodie and Kylie. After given pretty long hugs to every girl in the 8th grade to say goodbye- another time when I almost chocked up when giving a few hugs with some girls that I knew that I would never see again (and I gave a few bro hugs here and there, I'll admit it).

After saying final farewells, 8 of my friends and I headed to the local pizza place, Mellow Mushroom, and pretty much just hanged for an hour or so. It was a really, really fun time...going to miss a lot of these people, even If I'm going to be hanging out with a most of them this summer anyhow. Thinking about asking one of the girls out this summer...not going to say her name as my parents sometimes read this, but I'm going to go for it later on.

So, yes. Bittersweet is the best word to describe the day. probably one of the best days I've had in a long, long time, but Its been really sad leaving all these good memories behind. After 9 or so years with most of these people (and a class of only 35 at the highest) we've grown into more of a family than a class...we were all friends there, and it is always hard to leave your friends behind. But anyhow, it was a very, very good way to kick off the summer. Going to the pool and heading uptown tomorrow to hang with a lot of my friends that I'm not yet ready to "let go of" yet. Also, I'm inviting 12 or so of my closest friends to a bon fire Saturday too...this is going to be a very, very good summer.



found this when i got home. that was it, I cried. The most un-manly thing that i could do, but it couldn't be helped. This is the song sung by the chorus at grad- to everyone in the 8th grade, I'm going to miss you all!

Coming To a Close

First off, sorry for the lack of posting. Last week was EOG (exam) week, and before that I was stockpiled with review work. This week is the last week of the school year- and to be truthful, I don't know if I'm happy that summers coming or sad. On one hand, this school sucks, horribly, and I can't wait to see the (brand new) high school next year. Thinking of joining the Cross-Country teem...sounds like a good idea with all the running I've been doing. Plus, this summer is going to be awesome...going to be spending almost every day with my friends...heading to skateworld, going camping, hanging out at the movies, playing football in the park...we have a lot planned this summer. Who says that I have no life? haha

But on the other hand...this school year, despite the fact that we've been screwed over by the county office multiple times (took away our school dance, took away our overnight trip to D.C, etc etc), has been really, really fun. There is a lot of people that I've had a great time with that I won't be seeing this summer, and probably won't be interacting with ever again once we get into the High School. I mean, there are 4 friends of mine that I know that I'll be having a blast in highschool (Joseph, Logan, Randy, and Marcus), but the rest are just going to go their separate ways. I mean, we've been in a grade of only 40 or so since for 9 years, and with a few exceptions, have been friends (and if not that, friendly at least) since Kindergarden. There is just a few people that I don't want to leave behind, people I know I won't be seeing when High School comes around. Might as well make this week the best so far while the school year still lasts.

This week has actually been off to a good start, which is surprising being Monday and all. The teachers don't really think that they should be teaching us anymore after exams, so we just partied all day after finishing up our last SS project. My dad, who is a professor at the local university and teaches biology (he also wrights a lot of books for a company called McGrawl Hill) came to talk to us about Evolution today, mostly because he's pretty good friends with our science teacher, Mrs. Smith. It went well...no one flayed me afterschool because my dad talked about evolution, which was good (and for the record, I don't really care about whether you believe in creationism or evolution...I'm pretty apathetic when it comes to religion or politics), and the presentation itself was pretty eventful, moslty because My dad actually somehow makes these things seem interesting (shocker, right?) Here's a small snippet:

Dad: So, I like to think of Natural Selection kind of like The Lion Kind. Most of you have seen that movie, right?
*class nods*
Dad: Well, you know that there is two male lions - Scar and Simba, who both want the same thing. What is that?
*kid raises hand* "to be king?"
Dad: exactly. and why do they want to be king?
Kid One: To have pride rock to themselves?
Kid Two: Power?
Me: WOMEN!!!! *class breaks out laughing*

hahaha, good times, good times...We watched some film on Anne Frank that was made in the 50s or something, which is really, really boring unless your whispering dirty jokes to your friends when Anne and this guy start to get into a romance thing. I know, horrible, horrible thing to make fun about, but bear with me: the movie was really, really, really boring.

Thursday is graduation, and I'm probably going to get as many people as possible afterwords to go to Mellow Mushroom after the ceremony. Friday is the first day of summer vacation...may see If I can hit the pool, or maybe see a movie if any good ones are out. Planning on doing an all-nighter with some of my friends to celebrate the first day of summer that day too...we'll see how it goes.

Night

Warning: viewer discretion advised. The following post contains uncharacteristic emotion and a load of personal crap that most people wouldn't care much for. But if you want to read this, you've been warned. haha

First off, Last Tuesday Was My Birthday! My friends and I headed to Mellow Mushroom, a local pizza place, after my band and orchestra concert that day (band played Smoke on the Water, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Land of a Thousand Dances, and the Final Countdown...Smoke on the water is all trombone, and I think that I did pretty well) Fun day overall.

Now on to the real stuff.

Middle School drama. It's always been there, but last week has been particularly awful. First off, I took he mistake of telling my previously mentioned friends the name of the girl I liked. Naturally, being guys and all, they teased me on it too no end until I was finally pressured into actually telling her. Which resulted in me getting shot down like a fricken World War II plane over Normandy. But whatever, I think its for the best, as now I don't have that weight of a potential relationship balanced on my shoulders. So I'm all cool with it.

Going along with Middle School Drama, I've been caught in a civil war in our grade. Let's rewind a bit: since 6th or 7th grade, I've been friendly with all but a few of the girls in our grade (I know, I know, I am such a player...actually, not like that at all. whatsoever. get your mind out of the gutter :P). Anyways, I found out that that little fact has drawbacks. For some reason that is loss it me, the girls in our class our in some kind of civil war. And not that side-vs-side thing: its complete anarchy here. most of the guys in our grade are as clueless as me, but they're not forced to have to play Switzerland between 5 or so little groups of girls. I am so confused :/

Only 3 weeks of school left...this week, exams next week, and then a week afterwords for make-up test. As always, I've been stuck with pre-exam homework frenzy, as In 2 assignments in every subject each day. But seeing as the is more or less my last week of real school, I think that I can suffer through the next week.

Note: This is not my peice. This is a peice of writing from the book Night, by Ellie Wiesel. It recounts his time during the holocaust...its an amazingly depressing book, as you'll see with the following writing, but I encourage you guys to read it if you haven't already. It's a great book.

The following happens after the Jews has to run- run, not walk- 40 kilometers to the next concentration camp after their old one was evacuated. As men die around them from exhaustion or the bitter cold, one polish boy lifts up his violin and begins to play in the Night. The following are the author's memories of the event:

It was pitch dark. I could hear only the violin, and it was as though Juliek’s soul were the bow. He was playing his life. The whole of his life was gliding on the strings—his lost hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future. He played as he would never play again.

I shall never forget Juliek. How could I forget that concert, given to an audience of dying and dead men! To this day, whenever I hear Beethoven played my eyes close and out of the dark rises the sad, pale face of my Polish friend, as he said farewell on his violin to an audience of dying men.

I do not know for how long he played. I was overcome by sleep. When I awoke, in the daylight, I could see Juliek, opposite me, slumped over, dead. Near him lay his violin, smashed, trampled, a strange overwhelming little corpse.

I don't know why, but this particular part really moved me. I haven't finished the book yet, and trust me, there are parts equally depressing as this from what I've read so far. I encourage you to read it, no matter how depressing it is.

And now to end this post on a slightly less depressing note: the legendary piano rock song, Piano Man, by Billy Joel. Great piece of music, pretty Epic :)

Massive Weekly Update

Okay, well the past week has been, eventful, to say the least. Well, Sunday through Wednesday was kinda boring, but I'll start the updates on the day it actually gets interesting.

Thursday the 8th grade went to Raleigh, the capital of my state, which is around a three hour bus ride from where I live in the mountains. The way there was spent watching movies on the charter bus we were on, texting to people sitting across from us, and singing to certain songs that made me thankful that the teachers were sitting in the front of the bus.
When we finally got there, we were divided into four different groups, with only about 6 or 7 people in each as we only have around 35-40 kids in our grade. I was one of only two guys in my group, but luckily the other guy I was with was a friend of mine, as were two of the girls in the group.
We visited the museum of history (the only interesting parts to me were the gun selection and the sports history area- I am such a guy), before moving on to the Museum of Natural History (science). Our groups pretty much disintegrated there, as I drifted back to my circle of friends and pretty much ignored my other classmates, who were doing pretty much the same thing.
After making our way through the museum (highlights include watching girls scream at spiders, snakes, millipeads, you name it, and riding four sets of escalators, along with seeing a pretty awesome sloth), we had lunch and made our way to the legislative building. There, we talked to a senator who happens to be the husband of one of our 7th grade teachers, and listened to a lady who was supposed to explain the building to us talk about what the red and green buttons do for an hour (she brought them up 8 times- I counted). We then went to the capital building, listened to someone tell us about a bunch of boring stuff that I didn't want to know, before getting our picture taken at the governor's mansion and getting back on the bus.
We watch The Blind Side on the way back (which is actually a pretty sad movie- some of the girls in the seat behind me were crying), and stopped at golden coral for dinner. One of my friends and I challenged two others to an eating contest, but the teachers made us stop by the 6th plate: 2 food trays and 4 deserts. We continued watching The Blind Side on the way back, before arriving back at school at around 9:30 PM

Friday was our early graduation party, funded by the local church. They gave us a free breakfast, which I demolished by eating 6 chocolate chip pancakes and a half pound of bacon. Afterwards we played Ninja Tag (the most epic game in the world), musical chairs (the church didn't have enough spare chairs, so they had the guys play the roles of the chairs- I think a few of them were enjoying the game a bit TOO much).
They then took us to the park, were we messed around playing kickball, basketball, tackle football, capture the flag, you name it. We ate a lunch contributed by Backyard Burgers, and I passed the rest of the time not playing sports chilling under a tree talking to my friends.

That night one of my friend spent the night, where we stayed up until 12 or so playing Xbox. My great-uncle was also over, who's a pretty cool guy. He introduced us to this Japanese-flute thing...played some of the most calming music I've ever heard. I spent the next night with my friend too, playing Xbox and chatting over facebook. Sunday afternoon I went on a 4-mile hike before running 3 miles...I'm pretty tired as I wright this.

Well, that was my week. Sometimes they're that eventful, sometimes my weeks are just boring old school days. Speaking of school, I got only 4 weeks left- 2 weeks for review, than EOCs (end of course test), than 4 days or so of free days.

One other thing: Tuesday's my B-Day! Sadly, i have a band concert that day, but I'm thinking of going to a pizza place across the street from my school (its located in the middle of the smaller of the two towns in my county) with two of my friends who are also in band/orchestra. I'll try to post that day if I have time too.

Nothing Going On Right Now...

Well, sorry for the lack of blogging, but there hasn't been anything really eventful in the last few days. Last week was school, just hanging with my friends for the week. Friday I hung out (or would it be hanged out?) with me friend Logan uptown...got in trouble with the cops for something we didn't even know was going on...long story short, it was just us being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Saturday was, and had always been, annual chore day. Mowed the lawn, cleaned my room, vacuumed the house, and went for a pretty decent run afterwords. Usually on Saturdays I hang out with my friends from around 3:00 to 7:00, but one had been grounded for fighting with his brother, and the other two were busy that day (and yes, I have a lot more that 3 friends...those are just the ones I hand out with the most)Spent Sunday playing my new game, Splinter Cell Conviction, with one of my before mentioned friends. That was..interesting...but nothing a non-video game nerd would get. The next week I should have a lot to wright about though...going to the state capital Thursday, than having a pre-graduation party Friday (which occurs, oddly, around a month before Graduation) I also have a pre-birthday party this weekend...that's sure to be eventful. I'll try to blog on all that stuff this weekend.

By the way, My B-Day is a week from Tuesday! Couldn't come soon enough, I'm sick of being 13...

Bon Jovi Concert!

Best Day Ever. My Mother brought my sister and I to a Bon Jovi convert in Charlotte, which, by the way, is the first concert I've ever been to, and after a 2 hour drive, we arrived at Time Warner Cable theater. After waiting through some crappey warm-up band, the real guys took center stage. I have to say, Bon Jovi still got it, even if they're pushing 50. Bon Jovi never hit a wrong note, the lead guitarists and drum player were fantastic, and altogether its been one of their best performances in recent memory. I have to say, I had some of the most fun in a long, long time. Some of my favorite songs were:

-Its my Life

-When we were beautiful

-Runaway

-Who says you can't go home

-Work for the working man

-Livin' on a prayer

-You want to make a memory

-Superman Tonight

He also, for the first time ever, preformed Hallelujah, which was, actually, one of the best in the performance



its an amateur video, but you have to see it- the best part is, the video was shot at the same time that I saw the concert! If you don't see any of the others, watch this one.

I sang along, clapped to, and danced (eh, somewhat kinda on the last one, but still) to every song posted above. The band played for 3 hours nonstop, and I have to say, they still got it. Livin' on a Prayer was a best- I belted that one out with all my heart, as did everyone in the audience. There we many other songs besides those, but they were the ones that stuck out the most to me. Their lead guitarist, I forget his name, was one of the best guitar players that I've ever heard. I guess that you'd have to be there to really see why I enjoyed it so much, but trust me- it was well worth the drive, and the lack of sleep I had for the next school day.

To sum it all up, the songs, guitar solos, everything, were EPIC 100000000%!!!!

P.S- for future notice, its probably the worst concert to bring your GF too, as they'll automatically be more attracted to Bon Jovi instead of you. I'm not gay or anything, but even i know, as a guy, that he looked really, really good for his age.

Saturday Epicness- Weekly Update

Well, I've been trying to post every weekend at the least, though it's hard to do more than that because of the massive amount of homework (on Wednesday I had to bring home 4 books with a packet in each subject!) and the simple fact that there isn't too much going on to promote every-other-day updates. The leaves are just coming out here, and I'm guessing everything will be green within 2-3 weeks. I'm also taking an interest in photography, and I'll try to post a lot of pictures once the leaves come out. Ascension is coming along well, and If I can figure out how to actually make a story out of the two dozen or so pages of notes I have, I'll start posting a few excerpts from it.

Monday through Friday were more or less uneventful. We had a tone of Homework Wenesday and Thursday, and I'm running somewhat daily, though I'm going to have to start drinking a can of red bull before each run so i don't run out of energy halfway through. It's been beautiful the last few days, and the teachers took pity on us and let us go outside for the last hour Thursday and Friday, which half of the guys (includng me) conveniently spent playing smear-the-queer (aka tackle tag) and tackle football for the entire time. We also played Baseball and Kickball in P.E the two days I had it, but seeing as I misrably fail at both sports, I tried to not get too involved with playing them.

On Saturday 2 of my friends and I went to an amusement park for some Youth Group thing that one of my friends has. It around a two-hour drive there, and we stopped at a restaurant on the way, resulting with us reaching the amusement park at around 2:00. The three of us, including 2 college seniors (who I think were engaged) acting as chaperons spent the day riding rollercoaster for the entire time. There's only one slight problem: I don't do so well on rollercoasters. As a matter of fact, I hate them with passion. The thing is, everyone else in our little group (we were joined by two other girls who were also on the trip by now) LOVED rollercoasters. So, naturally, I was forced through a line to ride 6 or so rides that made my heart stop every time we took a loop or went around a turn. These included Goldrusher, which has about as many corkscrews as an amusement park can have on a rollercoaster; Thunder Road, which is just one drop after another; Vortex, the fastest ride in the park; Nighthawk, where you are lying down the entire time; the Borg, which lets you dangle from a harness while going so fast that you can't hear yourself scream, and the Intimidator, which is the longest, fastest, and highest rollercoaster in the South east U.S. The second of which we did twice. As you can believe, I was about to puke by the end, and was ready to kill my friends for dragging me on them. We ate dinner at Olive Garden, then I spent the rest of the car ride back in silence, seeing as everyone was worn out. I got home at around 12:30, and woke up this morning at 11.

So, that was my week. Felt like I needed to update my blog, and despite the roallercoasters, It was one of the best Saturdays I've had since last Summer.

BTW, here's a little thing I found on Youtube: I trust that everyone has seen the Lord of the Rings movies, and this has the speech Sam gives to Frodo at the end of the second movie in relation to our world.

The Water Cycle

Huddled in a blanket of fog and ice, we wait,
Quivering in anticipation of the drop.
Steadily we grow, straining against the walls of our prison,
Until, with the sudden crack of the storm, we fall.

With the rush of the tempest surrounding us,
We dance in a scene of beauty and death.
Colliding, joining, than eventually separating once more,
We continue our plunge to the jagged peaks below.

Eventually, our rugged, icy shells, begin to degrade,
The heat gathered by the fall stripping us of our frigid cocoon layer by tiny layer.
Faster and faster we plummet,
Until we come to a sudden, violent crash against the treacherous land from which we first came.

Yet our journey has not yet come to a close,
And still we rush with the vigor of a thousand generations.
Flowing down the sides of the ravine in a rush of energy,
We find ourselves moving through the gentle plains that rest at the foot of the mountain.

For days, weeks, months, we continue our travel,
Our journey taking us through the streams, rivers, and lakes of the gentle plains.
Our progress may be deliberate, yet slowly, ever so slowly, we make our way
To our final and ultimate destination.

The crying of gulls fills us with joy:
The end of our travels has come at last!
Filled with renewed energy, we charge to the everlasting sea before us,
To be reunited with thousands, if not millions, of our fellow brethren.

With one last, final effort we push our way through the delta barring us from our final goal,
And find ourselves mingled with the flowing voices of a trillion individuals.
Finally, we allow ourselves a, brief, well-earned reprieve,
Before the light of the sun calls us once more to renew our travels.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a poem about the water cycle. I dunno, I was bored, and to tell you the truth that's not necessarily to best poem I've written, but I needed to do something productive for a change.. In reality, I'm chewing my fingernails in anticipation of both my Math Test grade (math is by far my worst subject) and my report cards, which are both coming in by Thursday. I'm hoping for the best and expecting the worse, but I guess that I'll find out soon.

Besides, I have at least something to look forward to this week: two of my friends as I are heading to Carowins with a bunch of 8th-10th grade girls (nothing intended by that last little part...*whistles*), so I just have to suffer through one last week of school before I get to do something actually fun for a change.

I'll see if I can update my blog more this week, depends on how much HW we get.

Spring is Summer too!

Another random post, but who gives? just giving a bit of info on whats what at the moment.

Well, for starters, the last few days have been warm, as in 70-80 degrees warm (was 80 today, had to wear shorts for the first time in a while)  This kind of weather is my favorite, the warm, sunny, 7:00 and still daylight weather.

For the last few days I've been running, a lot, and I just completed two 3-4 mile runs without stopping on an area we call "the maze' around Bass Lake. I'll see if I can bring a Camera the next time I got there...its stunning, makes me proud to live in the Mountains. I'm tired though...can't manage to stay up later than 10:00 with all the exercise. It's getting me in great shape though...going to try out for Cross Country for the High School in the fall, perhaps trying out for basketball too.

Speaking of High school, just found out what classes I'm taking next year. They are as follows:

105 English
Algebra Fundamentals/Algebra Completer (two summester class)
History (honors)
Science (honors)
Band (A/B year-round)
Health Class (A/B year round...ugh)
Communications

Was thinking of taking up Spanish, but I'm going to reserve that for Softmore Year. the best part is that we get a brand-new High School the year I go in, meaning that it has a cafeteria that functions like a food court, a massive gym, better Football and Soccer stadiums, is positioned right by our Greenway for Cross Country, and the best part is, seeing as we get orientation in the building before the school year, the freshman are going to know the most about how to get around...for a change.

Oh, and the entire High School gets (free!) laptops. awesome

April 17th is the Annual 8th grade dance, aka the annual sit-around-and-talk-with-music-blaring-and-bad-soda. Was going to (try) to score a date and go but I'm heading to a local amusement park, Carowins, with two of my friends that day. However, seeing as I can't stand to go on roller coasters, and that they love them, I don't know if its going to be super-fun or a nightmare...going to have to wait and see.

Also is Spring Fling coming up, the school's spring festival. Nothing much to talk about here...just a good time to get together with friends.

The School finally took pity on us, and though we still don't get a spring break, Easter Weekend is now a long weekend, with tomorrow being a half-day and Monday off. at least its something, I guess. Going to warm like today was, which is awesome.

And to sum up this post, here's a run down of my day:

School
Got home, took dog for 1 mile walk
Ran 3 miles on The Maze, in 80 degree weather, which was tough
Stopped by the Grocery Store
Took dog for another walk, this time with my sister
Read and did homework on the back porch, accompanied by a glass of lemonade and a bag of popcorn
Had dinner on the back porch, steak and sweet potatoes w/ salad, Hope did her begging eyes and gained another 5 pounds off table scraps (7:00 and still daylight by now)
Went on computer, checked on facebook, updated blog.

And...that's about it.

Spring and funky waether.

Well, for the past, oh, seven days, life has been in the usual dreary pattern. Same schedule: Get up, got to school, stare at the clock for 6 hours of classes, than go running (2 miles? 3?) and return home, watch T.V, eat dinner, and sleep. Day after day after day. I don't particularly mind patterns, but a bit more variety would be nice in the day.

Was has had a lot of variety is our weather. Don't know what's causing it, but we've had about four seasons within seven days.  A bit of a rundown below just because I'm bored:

Saturday, the first day of spring, was great. It hovered at around 70 degrees (F), and I spent the day with a friend and my sister (who's in sixth grade yet acts more mature than most 8th graders- go figure) playing soccer with my dog Hope chasing the ball, which soon turned into a free-for-all keep-away from the dog. Once hope crashed, about 30 minutes in, we heading onto the back portch and drank lemonade (thank you mother!) while taking about random stuff, with my sister rolling her eyes and leaving the scene once the conversation drifted to the topic of girls (nothing BAD, just, you know, talking...guys are allowed to do that, right?) The rest of the day was spent at my friend's house, which is around a 10-15 mile walk from mine, clearing branches from that ice storm around Christmas and burning them for a good 2 hours, at 10$ an hour, which was cool. I crashed at around 11:00...tiring day, but fun.

Sunday was less eventful. My dad came home from a business trip, and the day was plagued by rain...not the nice spring showers, but a foggy drizzle. ugh. nothing much to say about today, just that it was boring and stressful...and that my sister stole my Xbox from me and began to play my Mass Effect game, which made me kinda upset (seeing as she played better than me, kinda breaks down the soul of a guy to be beaten by a girl at video games)

Monday was, well, school, but around 3:00 it began to snow. Snow, only 3 days since our 70 degree weather! it kept snowing until around 10:00 at night, and we managed to get a two hour delay before going to school the next morning.

Tuesday started school 2 hours late, which isn't that strange seeing as my state has the worst plow service in the U.S, or so it seems. The only noticeable thing was that my friends and I got a little crazy and decided to play spin the bottle..which resulted in me having to devour an orange peel...and to be honest, those thing were not meant to be digested. at all.

And guess what we had today? 65 degree weather! Went running with my friend, something we do about 2-3 times a week (more or less), which was funny because we were running around with shorts and tee shirts around a local lake, which still had snow on the ground from Monday. Only in the Appalachian mountains can you find that kind of ridiculous weather, that's for sure. Spent the rest of the day reading on my porch and doing homework...nothing overly stressful.

Overall, its been a somewhat eventfull week, just wanted to put something out so everyone knows that I'm not dead or anything.

Heart of Courage

Well,I've been writing Ascension lately, and I have to say that its coming long nicely. I usually get my inspirations in the middle of the night (figures) and so I have half of what I've written in a journal beside my bed. I'll post what I've got once I find the time and motivation to put it on my blog...after I've edited it of course. Right now it's just a bunch of ideas stitched together with a few lines of dialog, if you known what I mean. So far, the main character, who I'm naming Archangel for the moment, has arrived on the planet's surface. There, a battle between the Intai and the Kantras (Kai versions of the Intai) are engaged in a battle taking place in the ruins of presumably one of the former civilizations since the collapse of Intai and Katras empires. What they are actually battling on is one of the ruins that houses the last 'anchor' keeping the barriers that repel the Void up, and in the conflict the essence that does so is disrupted. Only three survive: an Intai'sei by the name of Sora is one, who is shown in the prologue which has been posted earlier, though a good number of tweaks have been made to it, most notably the absence of humanity. Anyway, an unnamed Kantras also survives, along with Archangel. since Archangel manage to stumble into the battle right before the explosian, both natives believe him to be the source of both the explosion and the Void invasion that follows some time later. The writing I got ends right about the time Archangel is 'rescued' (and by rescued, i mean she decided not to rip his heart out....grudgingly) by Sora, so I don't have much beyond that. And I'm still kinda vague on how he actually arrives on the planet from way out yonder in space, but I can fix that later.

In the mean time, I found an epic instrumental/choir piece of music off Youtube that fits perfectly with the story,,sounds like it would be the background music for a movie trailer for something...But that's probably just me : )

The Planet of Fae and Kai

 

 Note: these are taken from another site that is working on some new Star Wars thing, and I'm only using them as reference points

The planet where both the Kai and Fae live on is a planet of two extremes. Though lush, it also supports a variety of environments, ranging from crumbling cities and arcane ruins from the ancient war between Fae and Kai to beautiful alpine vistas and cities built within the plains that circle the equator. To get a better grasp of the difference between Fae and Kai, pictures 1 and 2 would be mainly Fae environments, while 3 and 4 would be home to Kai creatures. 

Just wanted to post something on this planet before I put out any more writing, still looking fro a name for the planet itself too.

Ascension 1.5

First off, sorry for not posting lately. For the past week or so I've been traveling, most notably to Florida, and while I've been doing do I've been doing a bit, as in a good amount, of writing. Which for me involves writing 1-2 pages, looking over it, than starting over either because a new idea popped into my head or that the paper didn't quite show what I wanted it to. But, anyhow, I'm sticking to the original Ascension plan, the one with the Intai'sei and the Void, but I've added a few tweaks that you may want to know first. If you don't, just skip to the somewhat unfinished writing I have below it.

- The story takes place on the planet of (insert name here) that is the home of both the Intai and the Kantras. These two empires are polar opposites, for reason I'll explain later, and were among the first species ever to experience interstellar travel. However, at the peak of their empires they engaged in a brutal war, which resulted in a rip in space and time that brought along the emergance of the Void. The Void destroyed their entire empire and forced them back to their homeworld, which they surrounded with arcane barriers to keep the void out. However, the arcane barriers are slowly weakening, and the Void is steadily invading the last haven for sentient life.

- The ecosystem of this planet is rather cool, IMO, and the best part is that I made it up without outside influence. The planet is lush, ranging from forest supporting mile-high trees to treacherous marshlands to the snow-capped mountain ranges that exist at the poles. Every species on the planet is divided into two separate branches: that of the Fae and the Kai. Fae are generally more majestic and graceful and tend to have a more peaceful demeanor, even if they are predators. These creatures are generally given a more avian or feline look and feel. Kai, on the other hand, tend to be more vicious, ravenous, and tend to have a hostile feel to them, even if they are herbivores. They tend to be influenced by wolves or reptiles. Intai'sei are the Fae version of one species, while Kantras show the Kai branch of the same species.

Without further ado, here is a bit of unfinished writing.



Once, he was something. A hero, an icon, the very symbol of everything humanity stood for. It was the men and women like him that kept the empire strong, people like him who stood as paragons of virtue, maintaining stability, peace, and order even in the most tumulus times of the empire’s history. Yet none of that mattered now. His kind, vanguards of humanities’ progress through he stars, had failed, and with that failure had brought upon the utter destruction of the entire Human race.

Legion

For centuries, his mind had wandered in a trance-like bliss, a dream state that consisted of burst of colors, flashes of memory, and long, endlessly silently stretches of darkness. It was this blissful chaos that comforted him, wrapping him in a cloak of oblivion that served to ward his mind away from the outside worlds…and it was this wonderful chaos that caused him to push away that single word, the calling that would bring about the confusion and peril of waking life.

Legion

The word repeated itself, digging inside the deepest fragments of his mind, bringing upon memories of death and destruction, famine and peril, things that he had long pushed down to the darkest depths of his subconscious mind. The memories brought feelings of pain, guilt, regret. But along with the visions of war there were ones of love, too- the indescribable sensation of a first kiss, the feeling of the arms of a lover curled around him, the face of a smiling infant. Those memories were the ones he feared the most, for those visions were the ones that caused his mind to surface from the wonderful chaos of a millennia of slumber, and no matter how hard he fought, and inner instinct kept pulling him farther and farther away from the comfort of Cryo-sleep.
He began to remember thing- his long forgotten name, Deavon, his wife and child, Seera and Markos, and how he left that entire life behind to save what little there was left to love after his family’s death. That last memory brought upon even more visions: The pain and suffering it took to become immortal, one of the Legion, and the name he took upon that sacrifice that stood as everything he had lost, and everything he would avenge: Vaec. He remembered the last moments before he submerged into the unconsciousness of Cryo-sleep, how he and his fellow immortals had left their race to burn and die when all hope of survival had fled. The final memory brought along a feeling of guilt- but also one of duty, an intense, driving rage to avenge those that had fallen.
Awaken



Vaec’s eyes slowly came to focus, the inner workings of his mind still sluggish after a thousand years of dormancy within the stasis chamber. Slowly, he moved his head from side to side, automatically noting the sensation of zero gravity that he had so often experienced through his countless years of space travel during the Scourge. Scourge- the word had entered his mind almost subconsciously, yet he struggled to understand what it meant. A thousand years, perhaps more, in a dormant state of suspended animation had stripped his mind of all but the strongest of memories, memories that drifted through his mind as simple, single words or phrases, the meaning of which were unclear to him.
War
Death
Sacrifice
Corruption
Damnation
Void

Void. When humanity had first left their home system, the location of which had been lost long ago to the passage of time, they had been chasing after an alien transmission that had made its way to their home world centuries earlier but, until then, his species had lacked the means to reach it. When the time of interstellar travel did come around, however, a thousand volunteers had manned a cruiser by the name of Ascension in hopes of first contact with an alien race.
Instead, they had found the Void.
The Void was alien, unknowable, and existed in a realm far beyond that of which the human mind could comprehend. It existed as a single, ravenous entity from beyond the bounds of our plane of existence, having brought itself into our universe through a rift in space and time created by the recklessness of a former mortal species. This abomination seemed to exist only to feed off the life force of sentient life in order to fuel its own ravenous need for living energy. It spread like a plague, sweeping through entire systems and infecting the entire population within a matter of months, slowly feeding off the being’s life energy while simultaneously warping it into an abomination of death and pestilence, turning it into one of the Scourge.
Miraculously, humanity has managed to cling to survival for the first few centuries through the combined efforts of the few species of resistance still left to combat the Void and its Scourge. Within 300 years, these species, with the human race leading at the forefront, engaged in a desperate campaign to push the Void back into its demonic realm of existence through the rift in space that was once thought to be a supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy. For a thousand years they engaged in a long and bloody war, a war which would have been lost as soon as had begun if not for the Legion.
The Legion was a group men and women from every race and culture who chose to sacrifice everything that they once loved to become immortal vanguards, godlike warriors to stand at the frontlines of battle to ensure the survival of every sentient being in the galaxy, but at the cost of leaving behind everything that made them human or otherwise. But even the immortals, the Legion, began to fall to the might of the scourge. And when any hope of victory over the Void and its Scourge had forsaken the galaxy, the Legion had been put into a state of hibernation and stowed within small interstellar vessels, known as arks, and would be awakened upon the approach of a nearby world that had not yet succumbed to the Void, if only to warn the inhabitance of the terror that lay beyond the reaches of their system.


More to come