Fun/Meticulous/Lots of other adjectives Painting

Sorry bout the lack of a visual sunday...i pretty much guarantee graduation stuff for this week. So last weekend i went to quite a few graduation parties and didn't go to one in particular that i caught all sorts of flack for...ah well.

My summer job began this week. It consisted of getting up pretty early and painting for 10+ hours for two days and 6 hours a third day. We had some good times and some bad times. Working with a crew of four for that long each day really starts to wear on you. Some of the good times come when making various inappropriate jokes regarding a certain piece of prepping equipment we use a lot. Others come when we make fun of our job site manager a.k.a. slavedriver to his face. Still others come at when the guy we are working for in downright hillarious. And by hillarious i mean uses the F-word all the time, but usually describing the dog which "we've f***ing spent $3,000 on since we bought it." The guy was quality though. He gave us coolers of gatorade everyday we came, and we're not talkin one flavor and one bottle per person. We are talking Wal-Mart quality selection here. Edge bottles, regular bottles, flavors you never knew existed like Lemon-Lime-Strawberry (an X-Factor exclusive) all resting in jumbo-sized coolers that only construction workers have access to.

My personal favorite story occurred after we had finished the job. Alan (for that was his name) considers himself quite the cook, and rightfully so. On Tuesday he asked what kind of meat we all liked. "Burgers are fine," we said after he tempted us with steak and ribs...i mean seriously who wants to admit that their client fed them ribs or steak (ok, maybe me)? He told us he makes one mean burger called Big Al's Big (another word for bottom...not underside...keep thinking...) Burger. It was big. "You guys can help yourselves to whatever you want to drink downstairs. We've got everything under the sun." "What a hospitable guy," Craig and I thought. We hopped down the stairs and found the fridge, only to realize that Al had left a qualifying phrase out of his earlier statement. He should have said, "We've got everything alcoholic under the sun." Cuz seriously, there was stuff i never even knew existed. He even had mouthwash covered. And he was freely offering it to kids whom he knew were minors...craziness. "As long as you can still drive, you can have whatever," he added later on. Oh geez. Good times. Great Oldies.

Graduation weekend starts tomorrow. Welcome home to my sweet sister and welcome to Topeka to Chad :). Got any parting words of wisdom anyone?

Blogger's Barricade

Recently i have found much less satisfaction in blogging than in writing emails or just talking to people. I even feel that the best parts of each entry are parts pointed to specific people. So now i don't know what to write. What universal theme can i hit on that most of you will care about and which some of you have more personal experience with? I really don't know...

Friends are strange...
One moment you are living in the matrix of companionship, and then you merge into the lane of friendship without ever looking over your shoulder. "Hey, now we're friends," isn;t something you ever hear. But opposite sex relationships...oh ho my friend. For some reason these are viewed as clean cut steps on many stairways, only one of which will lead up to a singular lasting marriage. Shouldn;t it be a ramp instead of stairs? We're all handicapped. A gentle slope, rising without notice (yes dana, this is a fragment). I want to put a numerical value on the slope, but i'm just not sure, probably less than 0.5 . Find common goals, pursue them, grab someone nearby and wheel on up the ramp.

I'm pretty solid at Contra, but dying needlessly is really frustrating.
Sometime, you should try combining the games Telephone and Pictionary...high entertainment.
Summer is going to rock.

The Final Chapter

So many meanings in my title...i will address each.

On thursday, the final episode in the Star Wars Sextilogy (is that a word?), Revenge of the Sith, was released. A group of a dozen guys, including me, went to Olathe to soak it all in at the AMC 30. I saw Jedis performing intricate lightsaber duels, Darth Vader breathing ominously, and even little princess leia...then the movie started. It was solid; i won't say anything else. It's just so much fun getting out of town with a bunch of guys that i enjoy being around. We did it right. Paul had his laptop, so we watched episode I in line. We played some Canasta and made a Wendy's/McDonald's run. The biggest drama of the night came when the movie started and the back lights were still on...grrrr. Ben N. ran to the concessions stand and let them know about the unforgivable sin. Some inept techie ran up to the back room and floundered for five minutes until he found the switch...what a tool.

Ah yes, we did this in the middle of Finals. Fortunately, my two toughest (AP Calc and Ancient Lit) were both thursday morning. Calc wasn;t too bad, but ancient lit was as hellish as we expected. Iliff included the usual 5 or so questions that we never talked about in class and were in none of our readings, but which we were supposed to have acquired the answer to by means of the Force or some other supernatural method. "You better remember the mistakes you make," he said. I quickly responded (yes, out loud), "No, i am better going to remember all the mistakes you make." He didn't really respond. Probably because he was pondering how he could possibly ruin my life in the 30 remaining minutes of class.

Today finals were easy, and the final chapter of high school began. It will end at graduation on the 28th (which you are all invited to, even you Akanksha). Cleaning out my locker was nostalgic in itself. I used the same milk crate for all 6 years of my locker-using life. I had the same locker partner for those six years (don't get jealous staci). Some of the rotting food may have been lodged in there for the past six years. Walking out the front doors would have been weirder if i hadn't had to return at 3 for choir (our concert in Sunday at 2 at Grace Cathedral. come...please) oh well. I'm sure it will all really sink in at graduation with all my family watching(all but dad :) ), screaming (sara & paul), crying(mom), rejoicing (me and i guess dad...no more tuition), laughing (sara & dad & me...ok all of us), timing (my dad times the speaker), and being overwhelmed by the mass of people that all know each other(chad). I can hardly wait.

Lots of parties tonight. Mrs. Greene summed up the day well when she played Handel's Hallelujah Chorus at the end of our music history final (the last one). And i'm out...peace.

Visual Sunday: Jealousy=Pepperdine

After finishing my GI paper and watching the Survivor Finale, i wasn't planning on doing Visual Sunday, but hey, that would be like skipping out on church or something crazy.Thought i should give you all a taste of what i'll be experiencing next year. How does surfing sound for your P.E. class sound? Rough life.



What will be higher, my GPA, or the number of hours at the beach each day?



Why doesn't everyone go here? I mean seriously...



Sign up sheet for days when you can come visit can be the comments section of this post.



It will still be sad to leave all you Topekans. Honestly, it will be. Doug really hit it on the head when he described how unique TBC and CPLS are in the way they create tightly bonded groups of friends. I'll be back each summer to exhaust myself with you guys.



Ok, that set of tail lights was a Lexus, that one was a Bimmer, that was a Benz, there went a Toyota (must be a teacher)



This is where graduation is. I'm taking bets on whether it will rain or not in '09, and probably more of a typhoon and earthquake than rain. That's all i got


On a side note, i think Ben N. is doin Amazing Music Sunday...check it.

Rainy Day

Just dump your buckets of precipitation already! Don't you hate it when dark clouds linger over you without letting their rain fall? It's like that friend who looks at you with a smug look that says "hey i have something i should tell you, but i'm not going to tell, just to make you mad." Awesome. Not awesome like God is awesome. Awesome like having a lot of homework right before you graduate. Awesome like persecution is awesome. Awesome that makes you stare into the most presentable orifice of the object and think, "Right now, i really wish you weren't here, but in a little while, i will be glad, so i'm gunna deal with it. I hope you're down with that."

In these last days, no lines stand out to me more than these from Eliot's Ash Wednesday:
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still

Come home. That's where the heart is. And if it's not, then you should look into finding one. (you mgiht be wondering what the antecedent of "one" is. Honestly, either of the possibilities are fine with me.)

What could i be doing more productive than this? Online witnessing maybe. Not much else. My efforts are really bearing much fruit. Juicy red ruby grapefruit so delicious that you scrape those last innards off the peel wall and slurp its bitterness down...down.

I have suffered from lack of writing creatively lately. Since that is the suffering i bring to you, rest assured that my life is quite peachy. Peaches so juicy---(just kidding haha). But mayeb i will leave you with a piece of my California trip essay i wrote last year (almost exactly a year ago...weird...make sure you catch the footnotes...the setting is white-water rafting in Colorado.)

My group of three teenagers, four old guys, and a guide comfortably fit on our big orange raft. Our guide’s name was Sarah, an outdoorsy-looking college girl who works full-time as an EMT. She goes to school somewhere south of wherever Glenwood Springs is[1]. Guiding tourists down treacherous rapids is just a side job. Only now do I realize that being an EMT is probably a job-requirement for these guides. At least I’d be safe if I flew out of the raft and cracked my skull on a chunk of granite.

I could go on to name the nine rapids[2] and describe how we got wet, but none of that compares with Colorado’s version of the Egyptian plagues. Mayflies. These little mini-moths were entertaining to say the least, terrifying to say the most. The first mayfly I saw had landed on the leg of my wetsuit. I hurriedly flicked him off and asked Sarah if they bit. She said no, and I believed her. Her tan face and straight set of slightly oversized teeth made her seem trustworthy. A few minutes later, we all had a dozen mayflies crawling around on us. An hour into the float, clouds of thousands engrossed rocks. The water was a flowing bed of mayflies. Many dive bombed the water in lemming fashion, never to fly in may again. Most stood on the water’s surface waiting to die. Some had the audacity to perform reproductive activity on my wetsuit. We had to enact revenge on these creatures somehow, so we ate them. I had never planned on eating them, but one of the sponsors asked if they were edible. Sarah didn’t say anything, so he ate one. After waiting a while to see if he died, four more guys ate one. I hesitated, but eventually my hate for those winged fiends[3] prevailed. I ate two, baby.

[1]I always hesitate to have a native describe their state’s geography to me. In this particular instance, Sarah named off some cities that I’m sure any first grade Coloradan would recognize. I just nodded and prepared my heart for Man Eater. I still have no idea where she goes to school.
[2]The senior guys had these babies memorized. The ones that stick out in my mind are appropriately named “man-eater” and “pinball”.
[3]Or was it peer pressure? I like to think that it was my hate.

Visual Sunday: Goblet of Fire

Yesterday was a pretty big day in Goblet of Fire (the fourth Potter book to be adapted into a movie) news. The teaser trailer was released, and some behind the scenes interviews were aired on ABC's Chamber of Secrets broadcast. So, in honor of all this, here are some screen caps from the trailer and the new official movie poster.

WARNING, SOME OF THESE FEATURE NEW CHARACTERS AND MINOR PLOT SPOILERS!!



"Why #4?" my brother asks...




Where is that famolus hooked nose? Ah well, at least he is Bulgarian.




Should do the trick. Looks like that studly quidditch captain we all kind of scorn.




Not nearly as attractive as i expected. Seriously folks, we need Veela quality here.




Firebolt me.




Whoa turbo. I had never imagined the maze to be that massive, but hey i guess it is the third task...




No caption really required. (why isn't the dress blue?)

Yeah, we did it

The following happened, more or less.
"Hey dad, i'm not goin to school tomorrow."
"Why not?"
"Well seniors are doing pottery at Schneider's in the mornign and thne we aren;t going i nfor the afternoon."
"You're doing what at the Schneiders?"
"Pottery."
"Oh, i must have missed those last two syllables...not that i would have had a problem with that...but pottery is ok too."
"Mom will you call the office for me and tell them i won't be there."
"Sure Thomas...Hello Karen, i was just lettign you know that Thomas won't be in class today, but he will be at school to tutor at 3:30. (pause) No he's not sick, he just thinks not going to school is more fun than going to school, at least on somedays."
"Thomas, can i go give craig the flying elbow."
"Go for it."
**Craig drearily enters the kitchen looking utterly confused**
"Did you get the elbow bud?"
"Yeah, about three times. Where are the pancakes?"
"I ate them all."
"Want pancakey..."
"Don't worry Craig Thomas (what my mom always calls him), i just started the second batch!"

Thus began my morning. So yeah i didn't go to school. Instead i played some soccer and Halo, ate some pizza, and spent too much time on addictinggames.com (i am thinking about blocking the site on my computer cuz seriously...). Got some weird looks when i walked in to tutor, but hey, what can ya do? Mrs. Toth said she didn;t even bother asking where we were until class was over. "I got so much done during that time. It was great."

On the senior video forefront, we finalized all our songs pending Waldy review. The Video is gunna be money. You should all coem to my graduation just for that. Even if you don't know the people, we've got some Coldplay, Verve Pipe, and Frou Frou rockin it out just to name a few.

I'm not so much creative when it comes to art. I just thought i would let you all know that. In case you didnt. Already.

I feel like i should have mroe to write about, but i don't. I need inspiration to write lyrics for a madrigal. Right now i'm thinkin it'll be about this guy who gets stuck in a blizzard and by chance sees this house and there is a girl in the house and they fall in love etc... Sounds awesome right? Well hopefully it sounds cheesy cuz madrigals are just that.

Visual Sunday: NYC Trip

So as many of you know, i just got back from our school trip to NYC Saturday morning at 1am. Here is a mini rundown of what we did. Enjoy!


We left for NYC around 1pm on Sunday afternoon. As you may have guessed, this is at the Liberty Bell in Philly. We stopped there around noon on Monday to see the Bell, tour Independence Hall (which, due to snail-paced overnight driving by our aged bus driver and some snow in West Virginia, we missed. No big deal though, i have seen it hehe), and grab some yumminess (a.k.a. Philly Cheesesteak). Our first encounter with security personnel on a powertrip came at the Bell. We were greeted by shouts of a late-twenties white guy with a shaved head. He thought he was somebody, "Alright ladies, we need less talkign and more moving. I can end this fieldtrip for you right now and send you home if you don't be quiet. Now please remove all watches-belts-jackets-jewelery-shoes-cameras-binoculars-and-anything-else-that-i-might-want-to-see." Naturally, we inserted funny things in here, most of which involved underwear or the like. Oh yeah, that is Lauren and Savannah in the picture. Both are juniors, and Lauren is single as she would like me to tell you.



Ipods...yeah. Honeslty, probably half of the NY population has them, so to fit in, ben, anna and lauren felt obligated to tote theirs along all day. Notice the array of colors...ooooooo. If you look carefully to Ben's left, you can see White Lightning's aunt...isn't she sweet?



Pidgins are cool. This is taken from the top of the Empire State building. The process of getting to the top was quite the topic of conversation tuesday night. It is a classic case of getting the tourists hopes up, dashing them, then repeating the process a few times, until finally the payoff comes, but no matter what it is, it can't be good enough after the emotional rollercoaster ride. At the ole ESB we entered to find some mostly empty cattle lines (you know the black "Trans-barriers" that weave back and foth a bunch of times) whic hw ebreezed through on our way to buying tickets. That done we waited in more cattle lines until stepping on an elevator. Yay, elevator=top, right? Haha, no siree, elevator=6 floors fro mthe top and more cattle lines for taking a cheesy picture and listening to sales pitches for audio tours...wohoo. Finally, that glorious and all too short, 6 story elevator ride comes and voila, you are at the top, feeling unsatisfied and obligated to spend lots of time there. After all, you just stood mooing for hours.

That much waiting warrants two pictures. Who turned on the fan for the photo shoot?


Two words: original gangster. That's right folks, Lauren and Anna just wanted to fit in with the other hardcore people on the subway. One of the most entertaining homies i rode with hopped the train wit hhis PSP in hand and a friend at his side. Apparently he was playing MLB 2005 and thought that the Yankees players were "my niggas" and the opposing players were "mothe--" well you know what they were. But listening to his running commentary o nwhat was happening in his video game was definitely worth the $2 subway ticket. But the truly burning question i nmy mind the whole time was, "Did he steal that PSP? Cuz seriously..." I know that's bad, but definitely true.



Speaking of the Yankees, Tuesday night, we got to see the greatest game of the year. That's right, A-rod hit three homers including a Grand Slam and posted 10 RBI. Clinton Corley got the second home run ball after we badgered Benji Molina, the Angels bullpen catcher, for an inning. Finally he meandered over to the fence and tossed it to Clinto...sweet action. I actually have a pretty entertaining video clip of arods GS, and hopefully i will get that posted soon.


WHat's that we're wearing? Could it be? Surely not...oh but it is. Yeah, we wore school uniforms all day on wednesday...what a bunch of studs. But hey, what are you gunna do about it? Wednesday was pretty dreary/foggy/felt like Scotland. We saw Miss Liberty, Ellis Island and the all-too-politically-correct United Nations (screw world peace...who let them build that complex of fakeness on US soil? That would be Mr. Rockefeller).


F.A.O. Schwarz. Wow, what a museum of gaudiness and potential spoiled brats. The place has filed bankruptcy and not surpirsingly. No one goes there to buy stuff. Who's gunna dish out $10,000 for a giant stuffed giraffe, or 150,000 for a giant piano, or $16 for an ice cream sundae, or even 400 for a pimp lightsaber replica...ok, maybe the lightsaber. But honestly, no one goes there to buy toys, they g oto look at toys that are beyond imagination. Which brings us to the picture, an authentic scaled down ferrari replica. Complete with mid-mounted gas engine, three speed manual transmissin, cd player, all startng fro ma mere $15,000. There was a hummer starting from 30,000. or you could pitch in another 5ish and get a real hummer. ridiculous.

Dinner wednesday night at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Wowzers. So it was definitely rainign that night, and most of us guys decided to walk the 13 blocks anyways. I mean we have umbrellas, and rainjackets, so we should be good. About half way there the rain drops decided to start combing their powers. One of these babies could have drowned just that, a baby. Lethal water action. I was thankful for my scuba background. Finally we reached the uber-fancy hotel wet to the bone. Chris (the one in the undershirt) straight up took off his dress shirt and undershirt in the middle of the restaurant. It was hillarious, all the waitresses started staring and a maid walked up to him to ask him if, of all things, he wanted her to throw his shirt in the dryer. What nice people! The Maitre d' offered us all towles and was totally understanding of our situation. Probably because we dropped over 2 grand at the place, but hey, being treated well is always fun. In retrospect, the girls probabyl made the right call by dishing out 3 bucks each for a taxi. Although, they aren't nearly as hardcore as us.

This is at the Today show thrusday morning. Now i could have put up a picture of Matt Lauer or Katie Couric (o wait, Katie and Al Roker were in Nashville that day...figures), btu i chose this guy because he is there every dang morning. I never knew why, and i still don't. When i asked if i coudl take my picture with him, he responded in an unrecognizable english dialect. I smiled, nodded, and motioned for Craig to hurry the heck up with the picture. We did get on TV though

Columbus circle, on the edge of massive Central Park (850ish acres!). No really entertainign stories here. Lots of moms were excersising wit htheir strollers. We even saw a class of mom pushign strollers, led by some mid 20s male hollering out commands behind his own (babiless) stroller. Weird.

And finally, thursday night, before seeing Beauty and the Beast, a group of us dined at the Times Square Brewery located in Times Square (who knew?). It was kind of disappointing. Our waitress didn't really like that a bunch of highschoolers were taking up her tables even though the place built in an 18% tip, so it wasn;t like we could screw her over. She kinda had an attitude with us. She wouldn't split up the tickets(apparently it would have slowed down the cooks in the back...i think she was just lazy), so that made for the typical post-meal confusion about who owes what. Good times though, and hey, it was our last meal before boarding the bus for our 25 hour bus ride home, so who cares how much it cost, right? We were on vacation.