I am Against Uniforms

I am against uniforms. STRONGLY. I think some people are ok with them, and some people pretend not to like them because they're not "cool," but I don't care about that. I just don't like them myself. I had to endure more than four years of uniforms back in elementary school at a private Catholic school. At the time it didn't bother me, but you must realize I had never been to a school without uniforms. Unless you count the two years in preschool (we had preschool and pre-k, not like I flunked preschool and had to do it again). But then, I only remember about two events from back then, so you really can't count that. Once I got out of uniforms, I never regretted it. So, I thought I was free from uniforms for life. Then the school system has to go and install uniforms for middle school. However, I was already in high school, so I still considered myself safe. For clarification, there were no uniforms in public elementary schools at the time, and there still aren't. They are just in middle school. This year, a rumor starts going around that they're putting uniforms in high school. The annoying thing is that they still don't have them in elementary school. So, the bill is discussed, and it looks like it's going to be passed. The school system even starts telling stores what types of clothes to buy for the high school uniforms. At that point, I am hopeless. I read an annoying article in the newspaper about the new uniforms and the writer has no idea what he's talking about. That aggravated me so much. I don't think he understood the words "dress code." He thought we could run around wearing whatever we wanted right now. Today, the teachers started talking about the dress code. They are strengthening it. Know why? The uniforms WEREN'T PASSED! MWAHAHAHAHA! Even if they try to pass the bill again next year and succeed, it doesn't matter, because by the time they do install them, I'll be a senior. The plan for this bill was to let the seniors by and let them out of uniforms for their last year, and I don't believe they are going to change that plan if they make another bill. I just think they should put uniforms in elementary school first, if at all. Anyway, I am happy because we won't have uniforms. I don't really care about the dress code. That's typically only a problem for girls, after all.
I linked a Radio.Blog to the site, as I had been trying to do for months. However, I am not directly hosting it, so if a song is not working, please comment so that I might replace it with another host. I will check through the songs to see if they are all working periodically.
I apologize to those of you that have trouble viewing this blog now that it has music and pictures in so many posts. Just to see how long it could take, I checked at school today, and on their internet it takes a good amount of time to get the pictures, and then longer to load Radio.Blog. I apologize if this is a problem.
Now, for news, as it should be. I meant to post a LONG time ago, but never got the time to sit down and write. April 3 was Wheezy's 16th b-day. I got him SWGB, or Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds. It was my first video game and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I think he has enjoyed it as well. I created a scenario for him to introduce the units and buildings just for fun. If anyone reading this happens to have SWGB, I have a Halo multiplayer scenario on hand (created by myself), that intro scenario, and a few miscellaneous scenarios that you can have over AIM or through e-mail. Contact me through Lord Sobaguda on AIM or simply post a comment. I used to have more scenarios, but that is a very old game, so I lost most of them when we switched computers. April 6 I decided to revise the LOTR print I created, although only slightly, and most definitely for the better. I switched the O and the Y, and I switched the W and the TH. The O was the Y mirrored, but the O looked more like a Y than the O did, so I switched them. The W didn't look like anything, so it fit TH well, but TH looked exactly like a W, so they also were switched. I don't plan to ever change it again, as it causes problems when I do. For example, when I switched it, my signature changed, so everything I signed is now wrong. April 7 was Amba's b-day, but she was pretty quiet about it. She didn't want anyone in the class to know. (Which, of course, encouraged cwdrums and llama to spread it around) April 8 I called Engineer again, and since I got a machine, left my e-mail address. We have been talking via e-mail since, and it is good to hear how he is doing. Over the weekend of the ninth, I revised the ECU Band Camp story that I wrote back in ninth grade. I have told Amba about Aramaia, so even though many people in the school don't know who she is, Amba will mention Aramaia every once in a while. One of her friends noticed, so she asked me to explain who she was. So, I decided to simply give her a copy of that story, since I already had it written. I had to add a year of events and revise it a bit, but it's still basically the same. May as well give you a copy here. It is, of course, edited for internet usage. Also, the last paragraph (a full page on Word) is an addition to the original story that was added April 10. Enjoy.

ECU Band Camp: My Story

It was over three years ago now when it first began. Band was an option in sixth grade, and I was interested. I gave up my three years of piano and began playing clarinet at [Park Middle School] in 2000 with [Mrs. J] and [Mr. C] as my teachers. I did very well that year and began private lessons after the first semester. After that year, I played a solo at our sixth grade final concert. I was the only person to do so. Many people still remember it, and I received a lot of congratulations.
With the coming of summer came an opportunity. [Fuzzy], a very good friend of mine, had a great idea of something to do for a week. One of his teachers was a counselor at ECU Band Camp. He planned to go, and I went with him as his dorm buddy. I packed up on the day it began and set off for my first week without parents around in my life.
There were four bands which you could place into at ECU Band Camp. The best was blue, followed by red, green, and the lowest being purple. The camp took in sixth to twelfth graders, so I should have placed maybe high purple, at most. I placed seventh in green band, much better than I expected. [Fuzzy] placed second in purple, the reason being that hardly anyone played tuba. I believe only about nine tuba players tried out that year, most of them in the high grades. It wasn’t actually [Fuzzy]’s playing that left him to be so low that year; [Fuzzy] both was and is a great tuba player!
It was there in second chair purple that he met third chair purple. His name was [Dmajor], and they became good friends. He was a good friend of both [Fuzzy]'s and mine, despite the fact that he is a grade older than us, although I haven’t talked with him much in the past couple years. He was in seventh grade that year. We hung out with [Dmajor] and his crazy roommate, some other friends of [Fuzzy] from Red Oak, and anyone who entered our open door, literally. We would play BS or Uno in our spare time, and Skittles were the favored snack, being practically the only thing available. We had great fun that year. We did everything possible together and all agreed to come back again next year. That was ECU Band Camp ’01.
Many things happened that next year, but one of great importance in regards to Band Camp involved [Fuzzy]. Now, [Fuzzy] has four siblings and seven people in his family. They had switched schools two times then, soon to be three. They were not satisfied with public schools, and decided not to attend them from thenceforth. His parents became his teachers early in that year. With that switch from public schools to home school came a problem. For more than a year, he could not continue playing tuba, until lessons could be worked out.
I did stay in band, however. Everything stayed as it had been the year before in my case. I continued my lessons as well, and opportunity revealed itself in early ’02. There would soon be district band tryouts, and I could go with our band, the tryouts being for players in sixth to eighth grades. I tried out and placed eighth in the Symphonic band. I also went later to Solo for Winds and Ensemble, where you play a piece for a rating. I played a solo and duet and got a Superior on both of them.
The rest of the year passed, and summer ’02 came. [Fuzzy] had still not begun lessons, and he decided not to come to Band Camp that year. Thus, I went alone that year. I placed third chair in red band that year. I was very satisfied with the placement.
About halfway through the week, something happened that I would never forget. Each day, I saw [Dmajor] at dinner and breakfast, if I could find him. It was dinnertime on Wednesday, and I found [Dmajor] at a table with two girls I did not know. Interested, and having nowhere better to sit, I sat down there with him. The two girls were introduced to me as [Angel], a clarinet player, and [Desertrose], a saxophone player. They were talking about a friend of theirs. Apparently she was sad about something. It was years before I found out what it was, but they were trying to cheer her up. They did think of a way, and it involved me.
So, they went and got her from another table in the room. She was introduced to me as [Aramaia], another clarinet player. [Angel] and [Desertrose] “explained” who I was to [Aramaia]. According to them, I was a guy that was moving to Asia soon and wanted [Aramaia] to know that I love her.
[Aramaia] knew [Angel] and [Desertrose] well enough already not to take them literally, so I didn’t stop them. [Aramaia] seemed to have forgotten whatever she had been sad about, and that was what was important. [Angel] and [Desertrose] had succeeded, and [Aramaia] was now smiling. I wish I had a better memory of the other events of that lunch, but I am also very glad of what I do remember: how I first met [Aramaia].
After that, [Aramaia] and I became friends. If we saw each other between practices, since she was in green band that year, we would talk. I also got to know [Angel] and [Desertrose]. I still talk to them every once in a while on AIM, but not so often. On Thursday, I hung out with [Aramaia], [Desertrose], [Angel], and [Dmajor] whenever I could.
Thursday night came. Every Thursday night at Band Camp, which would be once a year, is the dance. The year before, I had simply hung out and enjoyed the music. I expected that year to be the same, but it didn’t turn out that way.
Apparently [Angel] and [Desertrose] can be very determined at times. That night was one of those times. They wanted me to dance with [Aramaia], and would pester us both until we did. I wasn’t sure if [Aramaia] wanted to, and I had never chosen to dance with a girl in my life. Sure, I had taken ballroom dancing and danced at the Homestead with my mom or grandmother each year, but this was obviously quite different.
Eventually, [Aramaia] asked me if I did want to dance with her. That’s simply not something I could say no to. I asked her if she wanted to. She answered yes, so, we danced. Every once in a while, [Angel] and [Desertrose] would stare at us, smiling. They had succeeded. We danced at least one more time that night, although exactly how many times I am not sure. The dance ended after a while. [Dmajor] returned to camp. He had been celebrating his birthday somewhere else that afternoon.
I told [Dmajor] of the events at the dance that night. He had liked her too, long ago. He had liked her when he first met her. [Aramaia] had liked him too, but nothing ever came of it. I found out that story later. Apparently, [Bluegirl], who I met the next year, had meddled too much. Their crushes soon diminished to nothing. They became simply friends, as they are today. [Dmajor] told me he believed [Aramaia] had a crush on me. If he was right, then it was mutual, since I liked her as well.
With the passing of the next day came the end of camp. The final concert was played, and I went home. I had something with me, though. I had [Aramaia]’s e-mail address. We planned too keep up with one another as much as possible. Now, I had only expected as much as my old friend [Creegan] did. He used to send me a brief e-mail every half of a year. She, thankfully, wrote almost every other day! I was very surprised when I got that first e-mail the following week when I was at the beach.
That next year came with a drastic change in school. I moved from [Park Middle School] to [EMS], the former junior high school. [Mrs. J] moved as well, but [Mr. C] stayed at [Park Middle School]. Lessons continued, and not much changed in regards to my clarinet playing.
I gave up All-District Band that year to go to the church ski trip. It was a decision I later regretted. I had a great time on the ski trip, but the long-term consequences didn’t make it worth the fun. But I can’t change the past, so I moved on. I did, however, go to Solo for Winds and Ensemble, and returned with three Superiors.
Summer came with the blink of an eye, and, as usual, Band Camp came with it. With nothing else happening that week, I obviously went. [Fuzzy], who began lessons around April that year, came as well, with a little push from his mom. [Dmajor] did not come, however. His tuba’s mouthpiece was being fixed, or replaced, so he could not play his instrument at the time.
I don’t know what happened with the tryouts that year. I played my piece with few mistakes, played the scales they named, and played the sight reading reasonably well. It may have had something to do with my clarinet. You see, my wonderful wooden Buffet R13 had cracked just two days before the tryouts. It was the first time I had had such a problem in the about three years I had owned it. But who knows what caused my placement problem, except the judges. I placed third in red band that year, the same as the year before. I was very disappointed and wondered why. Then there was a slight turn of events. The next name called off the list, fourth chair red band, was [Aramaia]! That changed my mood instantly. I was still somewhat annoyed, but the week no longer looked as grim.
I had great fun that week, despite my slight chair problem. I enjoyed being beside [Aramaia] in practice. When Thursday night came, I didn’t deny her the opportunity to dance, either. [Aramaia] and I must have danced five times that night. We had a great time. I was also introduced to many many friends of [Desertrose], [Angel], and [Aramaia]. One person I met was [Bluegirl], whom I still talk to every once in a while. The last night, after the final concert, I introduced [Aramaia] and her mom to my parents.
I went home that night with something different from the e-mail address I got the year before. I had a hope, an idea. Once again, [Desertrose] and [Angel] had interfered with [Aramaia] and me. They told me I should ask [Aramaia] out on a date, and that they were sure she would say yes. I asked her, telling her I would like to if there was any way we could meet, since she lives in [Verde Ciudad]. She did say yes, and the chance to meet came quickly.
[Chessy], my sister, needed to go to [Verde Ciudad] for ballet shoes, and we also needed to pick up my grandmother from a hospital there. It was my chance. We agreed to meet at the ballet store, and went from there to the [Verde Ciudad] Fun Park. A strange site for a first date, but I followed [Aramaia]’s advice. According to her, it was “Juvenile, but fun!” We did have a good time.
There isn’t much to say about that first date, amazingly. I didn’t quite take the hint to pay for [Aramaia], which I greatly regret, even if she says she didn’t mind. My parents claim it wasn’t truly a date if I didn’t pay for her. Someone there asked if we were brother-sister, and that we looked a lot alike. Assuming that means we look good together, I took that to be a compliment. We did putt-putt, go-karts, and bumper boats that day.
The next week, [Aramaia] was going to Carolina Bible Camp. The week after that, I was going to Duck on the Outer Banks. It was there at Bible Camp that [Aramaia] decided on something. She told me that God told her that she shouldn’t be dating yet, not for a time. She asked me for my friendship instead. I got that e-mail at Duck, about halfway through the week. I decided that it would be too normal for me to get mad and say no to her friendship. Instead, I trusted her, and, regretting I had no better option, accepted her offer for friendship. She said that maybe it would be okay for us to date again in a few years. So, we had broken up. At least, you could say that.
I was going to Big Stuf Camp in Panama City, Florida a week after my trip to Duck. I hoped God would sort things out for me there. It was, after all, a Christian camp, and I was looking for answers. Things were sorted out for me there, but my questions were nevertheless not fully answered. Instead, I got a clear message from God.
Big Stuf was the best! We played Halo in our spare time and at unreasonably late hours in the night. We enjoyed great sessions in the Big Room, and one session with Duffy Robbins, our youth group’s favorite speaker, excellent slushies, the beach, great meals, and so much more. It was also about a twelve hour drive to get there! Of course, I truly enjoy such long rides. Then there was the message I received from God. It was short and simple. God told me I should not date [Aramaia], or anyone, either.
I didn’t really mind so much, and neither the letter nor the message from God really bothered me. [Aramaia] had not said that she wouldn’t date me, but rather that she wouldn’t date at all. God told me the same thing. I trusted she would hold to that statement. I intended to follow His guidelines, and [Aramaia] did as well.
I was abruptly forced to exit the band program in the ninth grade. I was to be in the Pre-IB program that next year, and it did not allow you to play band. So, I didn’t. I still took lessons, though, and returned to Band Camp in ‘04, but I was not in the band program. I guess that is over now.
I made another visit to [Verde Ciudad] during the ninth grade. It wasn’t a date, but we did get together. We were once again in [Verde Ciudad] to get [Chessy] a pair of point shoes for ballet. We met her at her house this time, and were off. We first went to Panera’s, a bread bakery, for lunch, on her advice. Then we went to Barnes and Noble, where we discussed different topics and what books we had read. We went to the mall last, and went to several stores there. We went wherever [Aramaia] wanted to go at the mall, since Mom and [Chessy] went their own way. Then she needed to go home. I met her dog Honey at her house and said goodbye.

This is a very modified form of the old story. There were many parts the tense of which needed to be altered, and many parts did not fit as well as it once seemed that they did. This story was written near the end of first semester in ninth grade, so many things have changed since it was written. First of all, I did return to Band Camp at ECU in ’04. I placed in blue band this time, and was very satisfied to finally do so. [Aramaia] once again sat one chair behind me, more literally, one chair to my left. We had a good time, danced, talked, and played music. The final concert went quite well, and I took more pictures during that year. Until ’04, I only had one picture of [Aramaia], with [Angel], [Desertrose], and [Bluegirl] also. I only took that one in ’03, so I actually went a year without a picture of her. After Band Camp ’04, I ceased to take lessons. I literally have not touched my clarinet since then. However, I have kept in touch with [Aramaia] more than ever. It is rare that I get a chance to actually see her, but we talk every chance we get. In March, everything changed again. On 3/15/04, [Aramaia] sent me a chain message on AIM saying if I sent it on to a certain amount of people, someone would tell me they loved me at 11:11 pm. I didn’t send it on, I thought about it. I decided that rather than sending it on, I should fulfill that chain letter for [Aramaia]. I figured that if she was sending it around, then she must have wanted it to be fulfilled. I sent a long letter that told her, in short, that I love her, at exactly 11:11 pm. She replied by saying she thought it might be ok for her to date again, and that she had feelings for me too. She opened up a chance for a date right away. That very weekend, she was going to All State Band tryouts. She asked if I wanted to go with her. It was a long ride, and we could, at the least, talk together. So, I went with her to Thomasville. It was indeed a very long ride, three hours or so. When we got there, I went in with her to get started and listened to her audition piece. I also saw our high school’s band director there and [Web], a flute player and old friend of sorts. [Director], the band director, was quite aggravated that I did not take up band in high school, and made sure once again that I knew. I explained why I was there, since he obviously knew I was not in band. After a short while, [Aramaia]’s dad and I went to a lake, Rock Lake, and sailed the Myth, my RC model sailboat. It was a perfect day, and if I am correct, the first day that I had sailed the Myth with absolutely no problems whatsoever. Her dad and I talked together of many things. After a while, I brought the boat back in and we went back to the high school. While we waited for her to come out, I saw a few old friends there, including [Ung] and [MJ]. I talked with them a bit and explained why I was there but not trying out for the band. [Aramaia] finished up her tryout, came out, and we left the school. We talked for the hours on the way home as well. We each took turns asking questions for all of us to answer. We stopped in Raleigh for dinner at a restaurant called “Bahama Breeze.” I had never had Caribbean food, and she suggested we try it. I was ready to try something new. It turned out to be amazingly good food. All three of us, [Aramaia], her dad, and I, had a great time there. We went on to Rocky Mount from there, and they came in for a bit and talked. [Aramaia] came in, so I showed her some of the pictures I had taken of Band Camp and simply pictures I had massed over the years. But they had to go on to [Verde Ciudad], so we said goodbye after a short visit. I also got to see [Aramaia] once again just yesterday! Of course, it will not be yesterday forever, so it was 4/9/05. We were in [Verde Ciudad] buying [Chessy] ballet shoes once again, so we stopped by. I didn’t know we would be up there until just the day before, though, so [Aramaia] already had plans for 2:00 that afternoon. We had lunch together and talked a bit, but since she had plans, we dropped her off at her house after that. So, that is the end. That is basically a summary of what has happened with us since I wrote the story. Hope this fully explains everything!

Thursday the 14th we started reading a book called Ishmael, which I finished a few days ago. We are going to have a quiz May 16th, but we are not required to have read it until then. I only hope I don't forget everything. It was a very good book, though. It was very environmentalist, saying that unless we abandoned the hope of conquering the world (or actually did conquer it), we are doomed. It's very true, and I wish there was something I could do about it, but unless I retreat to some secluded area of the world and ignore "Mother Culture," as Ishmael describes her, there is little I can do. Friday the 15th Ruiner had a party (formerly known as fog meeting) at his house. We had 12 people, on four xboxes. That is most definitely the most people we have ever had playing at one time at a meeting. Wheezy, superman, and Archon were not able to come, but Ruiner invited several of his friends to make sure we had 12 players. I personally had a great time. Monday the 18th Bungie issued a Live Autoupdate for Halo 2. I downloaded it ASAP and resumed playing. The update fixed many things, and changed many things. Let's see...
Almost all glitches and cheats were fixed, including standby
Grenades were strengthened
Melee attacks were strengthened
Most duals were weakened, although primarily SMG and Magnum were each toned down
Battle Rifle was strengthened
Plasma grenades were made to stick much more easily
We got report cards April 19. All As, yesssss! On the 20th, Mrs. Liberal has us start on our rough drafts during school. I most definitely have not gotten far enough, and I really should be working on it right now. Thursday the 21st I found out we are not having uniforms! Thus, the topic of this post. I actually wrote the opening paragraph months ago when I thought they had denied it, but found out they had not. I saved it until now. Friday I got a letter inviting me to the A Banquet. So proud of myself! I didn't get it last year because of ONE PROJECT that caused me to get a B in two classes (the grade was linked to both classes). I did what they told me to, but they changed their minds about what it was supposed to be after we turned it in... The weekend of the 23d was the Senior High Retreat to Topsail. We had a good time there. I went swimming (in the ocean) on Saturday! It was FREEZING, but we still had fun! Wheezy, superman, and noname all joined me. Our youth leader went in for a bit, but not too long. The girls stayed at a cottage, but we had to stay at a motel. It was not a good motel. We didn't have hot water the first day, so we had to take VERY COLD showers. That was painful. Luckily, they turned on the heat after we called. We played some Halo 2 over the weekend as well, and any time I played I won. That is really bothering Wheezy now, since he got used to me playing horribly at Halo. Then I bought an xbox and now I can beat him any day at any wacked game he can come up with. And he has some pretty weird games... We did a lot with mazes while we were up there, and I found out I draw mazes very well! I'll have to make that a hobby... We drew mazes in the sand and went through them too. It was supposed to be a competition, but the girls' maze was so unclear and hard to see, it was quite unfair. But yeah, I had a great time. Sunday I went to Fuzzy's house. Get this: I beat him at four straight games of Halo 2! He is so much better than I am, I can't believe I was that lucky! We played Territories, I won. We played Oddball, I won. We played, King of the Hill, I won. We played slayer, I won. Unbelievable. I also finished the last slate for the Star Destroyer, so once we finish the bridge and get that on there, I'll post some pics of it. Today, two new maps, Containment and Sanctuary, were released for free on live. Two other maps, Turf and Warlock, are available for $6.99. I can't wait to get on today, and that's why I'm rushing writing this... Looking forward now, since that brings us to the present, my b-day party is this weekend. I am planning on having Aramaia come! Amba and her boyfriend will be coming as well. I look forward to meeting her boyfriend, and I know Amba and Aramaia look forward to meeting one another. Wheezy will not be able to come, and I'm not sure if superman will, but I hope to have 10+ people there. I am most definitely looking forward to that.
ENOUGH UPDATING: MUST PLAY NEW MAPS.......

Republished List

It's been such a while since I posted this list, I figured I should post it again for easier access. It's also updated! (This list will be republished and moved to the current date each time a name is added)
Things:
~fog- a group of currently 9 gamers that get together to play video games about every month.
~casper- my white, large, cat that is constantly shedding
~leo- my cheshire-colored, smaller, loud cat
~stumpy- my xbox
~cartwright- my friend's [garage] band (he says I'm a cartwright-hater)
~gryphon- our school's mascot (like a griffin)
~FUMC- my church
~FUMY- my youth group
Places:
~North Carolina- the state where I live
~stony valley- the city where I live
~RMHS- my high school
~verde ciudad- the city where I went to Band Camp and where Aramaia, Angel, Desertrose, Bluegirl, and Dmajor live
~Autumncity- the city that Archon moved to
~Park Middle School- my middle school for grades 6-7
People:
~Fuzzy- a member of fog, my best friend, went to Band Camp with me, goes to Faith Christian
~Dmajor- a guy I met at Band Camp my first year ('01) who introduced me to Desertrose and Angel that I haven't seen or talked to much since '02 Band Camp
~Aramaia- a girl I met my second year at Band Camp, the year Fuzzy wasn't there ('02), my next best friend
~Desertrose- one of the two girls that introduced me to Aramaia
~Angel- one of the two girls that introduced me to Aramaia
~Bluegirl- one of the girls I met my third year at Band Camp ('03)
~superman- a member of fog that I met at FUMY four years ago ('01), used to be a good friend but currently hates me; no one understands why though
~Wheezy- a member of fog that I met at FUMY at the same time, has ADHD but copes well (he's an all A student and he sleeps in class, you have to give him some credit)
~Noname- a member of fog that I met at FUMY at the same time, goes to the Academy; tends to switch nicknames every fog meeting
~Trulegend- a member of fog that I met in fourth grade and became good friends with, but lost contact with until ninth grade ('03), we're now good friends again
~FEPJustgayenuf- a member of fog that I met at middle school; don't see him very often
~Archon- a friend of faloopaloop that I met through him and that moved to Autumncity but we keep in contact; he's in ROTC
~Ruiner- a friend of Trulegend that rocks at halo but had his xbox taken away so he is actually beatable now... although I've only managed to beat him once (score was 99-100) on free-for-all slayer; he's a year younger than the rest of us but goes to our high school
~cwdrums- a drummer I met when we were infants, we didn't keep in contact much after 1st grade, but became friends again in ninth grade ('03); funny guy
~Amba- a smart girl in my class ('07) I'm friends with, has her own blog
~Grace- my mom's long-time friend's (who introduced her to Dad, so she's the reason I'm alive... creepy stuff) daughter
~Jem- very smart girl in my class ('07) that is friends with Grace, Crystal, and countless others
~Crystal- another very smart girl in my class ('07) that is friends with Jem, Grace, and countless others
~Chessy- my sister (2.5 years younger)
~Mrs. Liberal- My radical liberal English 10 teacher (I'm a Conservative, good to see both sides though, and she's a good teacher)
~The Beekeepers- my fellow ilovebees fans, also the name of the ilovebees clan on xbox live
~T Ravvv- a new friend of mine, two years my junior but a true gamer
~Aarin- a member of fumc and active in Logos and Youth Revolution, among other activities
~Sunray- a very good friend of Chessy's, goes to fumc
~Ray- one year older than me, goes to fumc and rmsh, and also Sunray's older sister
~Hutch- VERY smart guy, but also very radical and a bit morbid; very individualistic and outspoken
~Sunny- really smart (genius might be a stretch), and always does around one point better than me on every test, quiz, essay, etc. I beat him every once in a while for relief though. He's Indian though, so whaddya expect? He's a good friend as well.
~Avenging- Fuzzy's younger brother that plays video games with us when I go to his house
~Aelfinn- one of Avenging's friends who I first met in Battle of the Books in middle school
~Engineer- an old friend from many years ago who I first met in second grade and was best friends with until seventh grade, when he moved to Oregon- an inventive and intelligent person
~Wall- a friend from school I don't see very often, but loves video games, especially Halo and DDR, and a friend of Adrian as well
~Llama- a friend, not the brightest in the class, but just a cool guy, and quite friendly
~Mrs. J- my band teacher and private instructor for clarinet in 6-9th grades
~Mr. C- worked alongside Mrs. J at Park Middle School but did not go with Mrs. J to EMS, stayed at Park Middle School instead
~Creegan- an old friend, also was friends with Engineer, but moved to New Zealand several years ago, so we lost contact
~Web- an excellent flute, clarinet, and piano player, and also a friend
~Director- the RMHS band director
~Ung- a bass clarinet player that went to NNHS as opposed to RMHS, have only seen a few times since 8th grade
~MJ- a friend back at Park Middle School, have only seen once since then, called me by my middle name (and still remembers it)

A Feat Worth Thinking About

For all Halo 2 players, Fuzzy and I accomplished something today never seen before. A Scarab ate our Puma, or Warthog as it is better known. Seriously. Fuzzy crashed it into the side, and it slowly crunched into the Scarab. As we were standing on the Scarab there were strange sounds that sounded like a Warthog being torn apart. The Scarab was having a bit of trouble "digesting" it, shall we say? We killed the enemies around the entrance into the Scarab, and then found our beloved Warthog destroyed in every way possible, sitting inside of the Scarab. Unfortunately, our internet proceeded to kick us out of live and the game in turn. No pics. However, Fuzzy and I believed it was possible to reaccomplish this feat, and so continued to do it again (on the first try, mind you). Dissapointingly, the Scarab didn't eat the Warthog, but interestingly enough, we still managed to get it inside, this time INTACT. It even had a Marine in the turret!! How he survived we are still pondering... This time we were NOT SIGNED ONTO LIVE and I had my digital camera at the ready. Please proceed to gawk at the pictures if you played Metropolis on Halo 2, or try to figure out what in the world you are looking at if you have not.



Here you can see a few interesting things. First of all, the Marine is watching me (bottom screen). Second of all, two Elites are watching Fuzzy (top screen for all you deductive reasoning handicapped people). Can you imagine what they are thinking? "There is a WARTHOG (aka Puma) inside our SCARAB. Yep, humanity definitely doesn't deserve to survive..."
We had to leave them alive because if they died the level would end...


This is exactly the position the Warthog was in when our internet disconnected. There are a few differences though. First of all, there was no green arrow because both Fuzzy and I were staring at it asking ourselves "how?" Second of all, there was no Marine. If one had even survived getting onto the Scarab, he would have died very quickly during the "digestion process." Third, the Warthog is alive. As previously described, the Warthog was most definitely destroyed the first time.
Isn't the rocket launcher pretty? Too bad Fuzzy wouldn't let me use it to "help" get the Warthog all the way into the Scarab's control area...



Of course, we had to have our fun, so I killed the Warthog. And so ends our story.

Any questions?

To clear up a few things before they are asked I will try to explain further.

For those of you that play Halo 2 and still didn't understand:
Level: Metropolis
Warthog was driven from the very beginning of the level through every obstacle imaginable to the Scarab. It was then driven onto the Scarab (in a way that did not fix it on top of the Scarab, which is most often what happens). The first time it was moved into the Scarab slowly by the walking motion. The second time it fell off the top (almost off the Scarab altogether) and was driven inside the Scarab through much effort. But Fuzzy can do anything with a Warthog, trust me. Otherwise, he could not have gotten to the Scarab in the first place.

For those of you that don't play Halo 2:
A Puma/Warthog is a vehicle with a gun fixed on top that usually is occupied by at least two people. It drives for the most part like a car. Sort of. Not really, but keep that mental picture.
A Scarab is a walking alien vehicle that has four legs. In the level Metropolis, you board it by falling onto it from above, so we carried the Warthog with us. Of course, that was the easy part. The hard part was getting the Warthog that far. The level is made to prevent it from going that far, but Fuzzy found ways to get through anyway, usually by brute force. No, not beating the xbox either. That wouldn't help much...
The first time, glitches in the game caused the Scarab to slowly take the Warthog into it, making a lot of noise and destroying the Warthog completely. The second time we just drove it inside. The catch is, if you land on the Scarab, it almost always moves the Warthog into a specific position, but since I landed a Ghost on as well (kept that secret for those of you that would read this far), it messed up the Warthog and it fell onto the deck of the Scarab, as opposed to the, well, you could call it the roof I guess.

Fuzzy and I will try to think of other possible accomplishments. We couldn't think of any today, but trust me, we'll think of something... eventually...

Radio.Blog

New addition to the site today! This blog now has a Radio.Blog attached to it, and it will be updated every once in a while with new music. If you want me to add a song, post a comment and I'll do my best. No guarantees I'll be able to find it though. Hope you enjoy it!

I love NYC

~Read "I love Blue Man Group" first, I hadn't updated in a few weeks and wanted to make two posts for everything that's happened; one for the first two and a half weeks, and one for the NYC trip and all my pictures~

At RMHS, the 10th grade counselor planned a trip to NYC for the students. Eighteen people went, including me, Wheezy, superman, and Wall. The four of us hung out together for most of the trip, despite superman's tendency to disregard my existence. It started at 11 pm at RMHS, where we met to leave. We packed the bus and pulled out around 12. The bus had TVs, so we watched several movies, most of them movies that I didn't care about, but because of my distracted tendencies, I ended up watching them anyway. I also listened to a lot of music whenever I could ignore the movies. However, a couple movies that were actually interesting were "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Ray," although "Ray" wasn't really that great. At least, not to me. Here are some pics from the trip up.


Wheezy with hat, headphones, and hoodie, ready for a LONG ride.


Superman getting some sleep- who ever knew bus seats could be so comfortable?
I almost got a picture of Wheezy sleeping too, (no, he wasn't sleeping in the first picture) but he woke up when I took superman's picture.

I let Wheezy listen to my Blue Man Group CD and he loved it. I listened to some of his music too. I enjoyed the ride up, if for nothing more than a time to center myself. What I didn't like was the fact that we didn't stop at the hotel. We had breakfast at McDonald's, not a great start to the day, but it turned out ok anyway. Wheezy had the worst cup of coffee he had ever tasted at that McDonald's. By the way... has anyone else noticed that for each five McDonalds there are maybe two of the other fast food restaurants in NYC? Seriously, I saw about five McDonald's, but only two Burger Kings and two Subways. Why McDonald's? I hate McDonald's! (Oohh future blog post title) Anyway, from there we went to the Empire State Building. We got up to the top reasonably quickly. I noticed the lines were a lot shorter than they were when I went last summer. Here are some pictures from Empire State Building.


The lobby of the Empire State Building

The following pictures are a clockwise view around the top of the Empire State Building

Lower Manhattan and Wall Street area; Ground Zero is in this area.


I know you see it. That is the Statue of Liberty (looks, small, doesn't it?). The island slightly to the right it Ellis Island, where for many years immagrants were processed for admission into the US.


Looking toward New Jersey.


Look closely now: do you see a black building? Jk, but if you look just above and to the left of the very top of that building, across the river, you will see two blue buildings. Wheezy stayed in that hotel the last time he was in NYC.


Look in the very center, between the buidings. You will see an airplane and a ship. The ship is the aircraft carrier Intrepid, and the plane is one of the retired Concordes, the British mach speed passenger jets. I visited the Intrepid, now an aerospace museum, last summer.


I noticed a couple nice buildings in this area. One is the green building to the left where at the top it is gray and forms an interesting shape. The second is the second building to the left, not the one in the shadows of the first, that looks faintly orange. It was neat to see, because one side was a nice shade of blue, and the other was orange. The division was a curve along the middle of the building that carried the blue side up above and slightly over the orange side. That building is near Times Square; last summer our hotel was right beside that building, and our hotel was directly on Times Square. The hotel is not visible in this picture, but I believe we may have identified it last summer. Anyway I thought those two buildings were neat.


Look closely. If you notice the center of the picture, there is a break in the buildings that forms an enormous rectangle. That is Central Park. The large brownish-grey building blocking your view is the GE building. The white and black building at the bottom left corner is the Verizon building.


If you look to the center of the picture, there is a hexagonal greyish-brown building. That is the MetLife Building. To the right of that building, you notice a building slightly taller due to a beautiful spire that pushes it up above the buidings around it...


That is the Chrysler Building, which was once in competition with the Empire State Building to be the tallest building in New York. You can tell by simply the view of this picture that the Empire State Building won. I'd say Chrysler definitely won the beauty contest though.


The large greenish building you see is the UN Building, which I visited last summer.


Across the river here is Queens.


This area is mostly housing projects, if you notice the patterns. This brings us all the way around the top of the Empire State Building.


The tower as viewed from the 86th floor, which gives you an idea of where the viewing area is in relation to the height of the building. The two prongs you see at the top left corner (apologies for my lack of skill in taking photographs) are put there to keep people inside the viewing area, which is outdoors, and these prongs circle the area.

After we finished looking around outside, we went back inside to group up and leave, but we lost superman. After around 20 minutes we found him and left. From the Empire State Building we went straight to Battery Park. We took a subway, as if you know Manhattan, then you know Battery Park is just below the Wall Street area and serves as a base for the ferries going to Ellis and Libery Islands. We looked around there for a little while before getting in line to get on the ferry. Here are a few pics.


Walking from the subway to Battery Park.


There were around six people dressed up as the Statue of Liberty and either posing for a while and surprising people by moving or letting people take pictures with them. The ones standing still were not wearing sunglasses...


Castle Clinton, a fort that gave Battery Park its name.

As I said before, once we finished looking around for a little while, we got in line to go on the ferry. I will explain later, but our counselor did not make it clear whether we were going to Ellis or Liberty Island. By the way, it was really cold. I was probably the only person in a three mile radius wearing shorts. I wore my coat the whole time, needless to say, as I only brought shorts and short sleeves.


The line of doom when we first got in it.


The line of doom after 30 minutes.


The line of doom after an hour.


Liberty Island as seen from the line of doom.


Ellis Island as seen from the line of doom.


This was a memorial to the merchants of the US. It was, as you can tell by the view of Ellis Island to the left of the picture, right across from the line.

After around two hours or so, we finally got on the boat. I took one picture from the boat since we had such a view, but I mostly sat and tried to rest my legs. It was really windy and cold, so I stayed on the second floor of the boat, where it was slightly warm (the third floor had no roof) and sat down where many people got up and looked out from the boat. I just wanted to rest. I hadn't sat down in around three hours, when I was on the subway. Ouch. Well, here is that picture.


Guess Who. What a picture, no?

Well, the boat stopped at Liberty Island. I got off there along with two counselors and another student. We waited for a while to see everyone else get off, but no one came. After a while the counselor that did the trip got off the boat and came to tell us we were on the wrong island. We didn't have tickets to get into the Statue of Liberty, that I knew, but I thought we were still going to the island. Apparently two counselors thought the same thing. And a student. Anyway the boat left before we could get back on. Our counselor called the other group and told them not to go to Ellis Island but back to Battery Park. I would have told them to go on and that we would go back to Battery Park and wait for them to finish, since we would delay them if we went on to Ellis Island, but he didn't. So, after a couple hours of waiting for a boat and a long wait to get dock the boat (it took a long time for the boat to dock, around 20 minutes; I was sleeping so it could have been longer; for some reason). When we finally did group up again, I found out everyone was mad at ME. They only saw me get off, so they decided it was all MY fault. I explained that I was one of three people, the LAST of three people to get off, but they still needed a scapegoat, so they blamed me anyway. And thus, we managed to waste around four hours and do NOTHING. Despite pleadings to go to the hotel... notice I say go to the hotel, not back to the hotel; we STILL had not been to the hotel yet, our counselor insisted that we go shopping. So, we went to Pier 21. They had a few boats there including two tall ships, and the shopping was not that bad, so I wasn't too aggravated about not going to the hotel once we got there. Here are some pictures.


Resting after way too much standing up. Did I mention it was cold?


There was a little building near the pier with a few model boats inside, but you couldn't go inside, at least I don't think you could. Beautiful boats, aren't they?


Aren't the tall ships pretty? The little building I mentioned is to the left of the picture.


Here's a better- and closer- view. Can you see what would have been cannon holes? Or...windows...maybe...


The second tall ship. This one was much longer. It was called the Peking, by the way. Can't remember what the other one was called...


As I said, it was a bit longer. This picture only shows around half of the ship.


The Ambrose. Could someone explain this ship to me? It looks like a Tugboat, but it has two masts without sails. At the top of the masts were lanterns. What was this boat made for?


This is the mall we went to. It was three floors, as you can see here. Wall and I went to several stores, including EB, Brookstone, and Sharper Image. Actually, that was about it. I bought an adapter for the xbox for around $12, my only purchase for the trip. Except food. Food doesn't count.

Once we finished at the mall, we WENT TO THE HOTEL. Finally, we could rest. Our room had a few problems, but nothing important. Our view was... well... the worst possible, and we had a bit of trouble hooking up the xbox, but we made it through. That's right, we're survivors. As for the view, nobody cares. The xbox problem had to be fixed though. You see, there was some weird setup for the cable, and we couldn't get the cables out to hook ours in. Wheezy called someone from the front desk and asked about it. She hang up on him! After a while, we called back, but she told us that she had sent someone to help us. In around ten seconds, an electrician walked in. That is, he looked like an electrician. I don't really know, because all he did was take the cable out. If I had brought my knives I could have done it, since one of them has needlenose pliers, but I didn't. It was a school trip, after all. So, we hooked up the xbox. Later, we had a pool party (I didn't go, I stayed in the room and listened to music on my xbox- I downloaded all 42 of my CDs onto good old Stumpy). Our counselor ordered pizza and we ate in his room. Then we went to bed. We had two beds, and since Wheezy didn't want to share a bed with me because I'm his size and superman hates me, Wheezy slept on the floor. Here are some pictures.


The room.


The view.


The problem.


The solution. Dang that's hard to see, but Stumpy is all pretty and working.


Wheezy's picture of superman. This is actually a picture of a mirror. Interesting, no? Superman had a bit of trouble getting his calling card to work, but I don't know anything about that, because he won't talk to me.

Friday we went to IHOP for breakfast and got an actually decent start to the day. I took a few pictures, so here they are.


Waiting in the lobby. We did a lot of waiting throughout the trip.


Here is IHOP. This was my first time eating at IHOP. Not quite a good first impression; the waiters got everyone's orders mixed up. For example, as you can see here, Wheezy had coffee. He brought it with him, so he told the waiter he had coffee and didn't need anything to drink. Take a guess what she did. She brought him coffee. If tips weren't included automatically for parties...


Wow. Those were some good pancakes. Chocolate chip with whipped cream, that's good stuff. The first impression may have generally been bad, but the food was good [when whe got it].

After breakfast we got on the bus and went to St. John's University. The trip took an inexcusably long time. I slept through the trip so there's no telling how long it took, but I think it was around an hour. When we finally got there, we went on a tour of the campus. I decided I'm not going to that college. For one, it's Catholic. For two, there is NO engineering school. For three, [blah blah blah nobody cares I'm not going there]. It did have a nice campus though. Most colleges do though... at least better than what I've come to expect from schools based on my experience with public (and private for that matter) schools.
Here are some pictures of the campus.


This is the main building at St. John's University. It was a nice building, and as you can see they had a gigantic lawn in front of it for when the weather is warm. If you notice, there are NO people out there. It was quite cold, and realize who is saying that it was cold.


Walking around the campus. This is our group by the way, but it's hard to identify people from this picture.


This was a pretty fountain. It's a little hard to see from a picture, but it was well done. As I said, it was a reasonably nice campus.


This was a trailer that was painted all the way around (no dipstick right?). You can see the Catholic themes in both the style and subjects. I thought that was a neat idea.


This was a building on the campus. I think they said it was a store, but I was busy taking the picture and wasn't paying attention. Looks more like a restaurant to me...


This structure was directly in front of that building. It would've just made too much sense to put the name of the building on it...

After the tour of St. John's, we went to Jamaica Avenue for shopping. We were shopping for a few hours, but I didn't buy anything. They didn't have any music stores, and I was stocked up on video games and electronics. Wall did buy a game for DS, though. Oh, for you non-gamers, a Nintendo DS is the newest portable gaming system. On second thought, the newest is the PSP, but only by a few months. The DS and the PSP are in competition right now. We'll see which one comes out on top. I don't think there's room for two companies in the portable gaming business right now, but we'll see. Here are the pictures I took.


This is Jamaica Avenue. There is an uncharacteristically low amount of cars in this picture most likely due to the red light...


Wall noticed a subliminal message in this screen. Do you see it?


Now do you see it? Read the letters to yourself. Notice where the arrow is. PS: ASS. At least, that's what Wall thinks. I wouldn't put it past Disney.


Look what Wall and I found!


It's a Super Nintendo! Still IN THE BOX! That's a '92 Nintendo! Amazing what you can find in NYC...


What a booth. This guy had original Gameboy games, the Super Nintendo, all the way to PSP and DS. Now that's a great selection.


Wall went into a McDonald's to get lunch (he doesn't like Subway... I would take anything over McDonald's, personally...) and I found three Star Wars pictures. This one was my favorite; Yoda floating on Dantooine. Yes, I'm the dork that can identify the planet.


This was a great painting, but it had a glare when I took the picture. It's just your classic Darth Vader/Imperial forces painting.


Finally, here is Boba Fett in the classic suit. Not that great of a painting, but still pretty cool. Hmm... Yoda, Vada, and Boba... what are these people getting at?


Now, this is a thing of beauty. If you can't read the print, it says "PERSONAL DVD/CD/MP3 PLAYER." That is amazing. It looks like a walkman with a screen built in. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this baby plays CDs, DVDs, and MP3s. All for *only* $170. Cough cough... maybe when I actually have DVDs to play on it...

Once we were done shopping at Jamaica Avenue, we piled on the bus and headed back to the hotel. Strangely enough, I have pictures of that, so here they are.


This is Shay Stadium. Wheezy is a big fan of the Mets, so he had me take this picture. By the way, here's a trivia question for you. Why are they called the Mets? Wheezy said I was about the second person to get this. Now stop reading for a second and think. Blah blah blah this is boring so think about it. Ok enough of that. It's because "Met" is short for "Metropolitan." Did you get it? Or did you read the whole thing before you stopped to think? Oh well, I tried.


Here is a picture of the hotel we were in. It was the Mariott in Flushing, and I have no idea what the name was.

When we got back to the hotel, we got ready for dinner and left in around an hour. Actually, if you include the amount of time we waited for our counselor in the bus, it was longer than that. Anyway, we were going to go to Dallas BBQ for dinner, but we weren't able to (still not clear on why, had something to do with someone's April Fool's Day joke, it was April 1 after all). We went to Stella D'Angelo instead, a nice Italian restaurant. I had Veal Parmesan, a very good meal as it turned out to be. Wheezy had calamari and, despite my warnings, asked for a doggie bag because he only ate half of it. We both left a tip because our counselor paid for that meal for us after the meal. I wanted to leave around $3 but didn't have any ones, and Wheezy wanted to leave $5 but only had ones. I left $5 and Wheezy left $3, so it ended up ok anyway. However, another counselor went behind us and picked it up. She came back to us on the bus and said "I got this for you because there was a 15% tip automatically counted in the bill." I don't care! I didn't pay the bill, and I wanted to show my appreciation, because our waiters were awesome. But nooo, my kind counselor has to go and take it off the table. I knew there was a tip automatically taken, but our counselor was paying that, not me. Oh well, no one can say I didn't try. After dinner we rushed to Times Square in the bus and then into Palace Theatre, where we saw "All Shook Up." It was a great Broadway show that had several Elvis hits and a hilarious storyline. I even got my Playbill signed by one of the actors! When we went outside, I looked at the sign for the Toys R Us on Times Square, and saw that they were having "Midnight Madness for Star Wars: Episode III on April 2." That was an hour and a half away! There was an enthusiast group there and people all around were dressed up as stormtroopers, scout troopers, and they had Boba Fett, a few jedi, and Darth Vader. I soooo wish I would have brought my camera. I left it at the hotel because we were just going to a nice restaurant and then a play. Who would've thought there would be a Star Wars convention... The really annoying thing is that we ended up not leaving until around 11:30, and people were already going inside. I wish so bad that I could have gone... Oh well, I'll have to wait until May 15. That's the date Episode III; the final episode by the way; is released. Anyway, we rode back to the hotel in the bus. Wheezy opened up his calamari IN THE ROOM and nearly fell over! The room stunk horribly for a long while. We had a meeting in our counselor's room; he bought a birthday cake for everyone that had a birthday between January and April. Heaven knows why he did that, because everyone just wanted to go to bed and very few people stayed to eat. Even I didn't stay. Cake is the last thing I need to be eating. It was a bit tempting though, but I just wanted to lay down in my room and rest/play vid games. Wheezy and I ended up staying awake and playing Star Wars: Battlefront on Stumpy until around three in the morning. Here are a few pictures.


Wheezy and his calamari. If you can't see, this piece was actually about seven tentacles on one piece. Mmm mmm good, cold calamari.


The doggie tray of calamari. I warned Wheezy that would be a powerful smell, but nooo...


Here is the birthday cake. OOOH REAL NAMES, right?


Birthday boy couldn't stay awake. Our counselor actually thought that because it was midnight on April 2, that it was April 3, Wheezy's birthday. And we were stupid enough to not realize how wrong he was until about two that morning in the middle of a game...

Around three in the morning, Wheezy decided to go to bed. He was passing out during games and waking up for a few minutes whenever he felt an explosion (the controller vibrates, all you non-gamers). So, we slept for a few hours. Saturday was a miserable day. Rainy, windy, and overcast. We had breakfast at a Burger King and went to Canal Avenue to shop. It was horrible weather to shop, but our other choice was the Black History Museum, so everyone went shopping. After trying to shop in a few places, all the guys decided to hide in the US Postal Office instead and wait for the bus. After a little while we saw it go by and ran after it. Once we ran a few blocks and tried to get the driver's attention a few times, we finally ran up to the door at a red light and banged on it. He opened up and everyone piled in. We drove around for a while waiting for the pick up time. Wheezy bought three lighters on this trip (he is a professed pyro and wants to be a pyrotechnician for a living... I swear the world will not be safe that day), so he was playing with them on the bus. He was kind of freaking out and acting weird (ADHD kicking in) so I made him take his pills and he started to calm down a bit. We went back and picked up the girls at the time we said, and went on. Here are some pictures from that chapter of our adventure.


Wheezy loved this picture because it truly conveyed how he felt about having his picture taken: he despised it. By the way, we were waiting in the lobby (again) at the time.


Wall and I found these turntables in an electronics store on Canalk Avenue. As I said before, it's amazing what you can find...


The United Stated Postal Office. Do you see the water on the road? It was rainy, so this fine building served as a hideout for the guys for about 45 minutes.


Wall didn't wear a coat, so our counselor gave him his. It's not so easy to tell in this picture, but it was ENORMOUS on him. For example, the sleeves were about eight inches too long. This picture is from inside the US Post Office, by the way.

After we picked up the girls, we looked for around an hour for a place called "Crystal Castle." We never found it. I hear they serve old fashioned hamburgers, you know, the thin square patties on roll buns that are always served with onions. Too bad I NEVER GOT TO HAVE ONE. I did discover something though. Our counselor has NO SENSE OF DIRECTION. We gave up after a while and left NYC to go home. Here are a couple pictures from the trip home.


On our way out we went by Ground Zero, the UN Building, and several other famous places. Here is the only picture I got of them; this is the UN Building from a closer view.


The long trip home. Here you see Wheezy drinking his fourteenth- and last- cup of coffee of the DAY. He said it was the most coffee he had ever drunk in a day. I swear if he isn't addicted.

We made a few stops on the way home, which included two "dinner" stops at three and six, and a stop at Potomac Mills' mall and a gas station later in the night. I wanted to take a picture at the mall, but didn't get a chance. Our counselor decided to have a "talent show" on the bus that night. What a mistake. Of course, he thought it was great, but I just turned on the Walkman and cranked up the sound. Thank goodness I couldn't hear- or see- anything they were doing. I don't care if the window just showed black, it was better than watching that "show." We finally got home around 1:30 in the morning. It was a good trip, and I enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy a trip that included so much WAITING. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I'll be posting pictures from trips more often now, especially if I get the digital camera to myself for the trip. Anyway, that pretty much sums everything up!