Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, And Other Happenings

Wow...I need to blog more. All apologies, I've been very bored, boring, and tired lately.
I do have something incredibly epic to spread the word about, however - Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's a short film that started out as a web mini-series created by Joss Whedon during the writers' strike. It's a musical, and it stars the incredibly gifted Neil Patrick Harris as the title character. I can't really think of much to say about it, other than the fact that I've watched it three times in 24 hours, and I've been annoying the crap out of my friends by singing the songs from it constantly.

I finished my Anthem essay I recently wrote about. It was due at 11:59 PM on the 20th, and I hit the "submit" button at 11:49. I had the entire thing written by 11, but I wasn't happy with it, so I delayed sending it. At 11:15, I had a flash of brilliance, and set to fixing my paper at once. I added a paragraph that outlined a second thesis, and then went through what was already there to make the new stuff fit. The new, improved paper kicked the old one's butt, and I'm very happy with it. If you want to read it, here it is. The awesome last-minute paragraph is the second one, by the way.

I passed driver's ed! I went to the Secretary of State's today, to get my permit, but I didn't have all of the necessary documentation. They would have been closed by the time I went home, got the stuff, and came back, so I am license-less.

Well...The spark of writing that caused me to start writing this has passed. Even typing a closing paragraph is incredibly tough, all of a sudden...goodbye!

Netflix

Has anyone ever watched the show Freaks and Geeks? Probably not, since it only ran for 16 episodes in the 90s. Somehow my mom heard about it, and we've been watching the series on DVD for the last few weeks. It's hilarious, but I can totally understand how it got canceled. It shows two very distinct groups in high school - the burnouts, and the completely socially inept losers. Both groups seem to demand you completely immerse yourself in their lifestyles, and I don't think that has been reality to most people. Furthermore, the characters do things that are so weird it makes you uncomfortable. Example: the main "geek" character's gym teacher is forcing the class to all take showers. There's a long struggle where he tries to rebel, blah blah, eventually he takes one. The bullies in his class shove him into the hallway, naked, and lock the door. A montage of him running through busy hallways with nothing but a blue dot follows. See what I mean? Uncomfortable.

By the way, the way we're getting the DVDs is Netflix. Since we don't have satellite or cable, and movies are too expensive, it's a pretty good deal. However, I seem to end up wanting to own a lot of the movies we get. Namely, Empire Records - an epic film - and more recently (we got it yesterday) Blades of Glory. I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for Will Farrell movies. He's hilarious, and I think I like every movie he's in. Plus, in Blades of Glory, he seems to be channeling Jim Morrison. Between his hair and his constant drunkenness, he reminds me a lot of Val Kilmer in The Doors.

Well, I have to go get ready to go shopping...it's a Saturday, and that means new food in the house!

Driver's Training

Wanna hear something that seems to have adults around me, especially my mother and grandparents, in a panic? Next Monday I start driver's training. After three weeks of that, I'll have my learner's permit.

Mildly frightened to being sharing the road?

A Quick Update

What has been up, bloggers? Nothing much happening over here.

We had another snow day on Friday; it was much better than the last one. My mom and I went shopping for what had to have been the first time in weeks, because it was a paycheck Friday and the previous one we had to pay the propane bill. It was a lot of fun.

The even better news: we finally got our gym membership back! My mom's coworkers organized a corporate discount, and we had been planning on it anyway. It's too nasty outside to go running, and our half marathon is approaching rapidly. I've felt rather un-athletic lately, and I've lost a bunch of muscle. We've already been there 3 times in four days.

There hasn't been much else going on. I've been playing the guitar a lot; I found out that even though it annoys my mom, turning my amp way up makes the guitar sound better. The notes seem fuller, or something along those lines.

Well...this has been a good update post. Short, succinct, and a nice reminder that I'm still around. What more could you lovely readers ask for?

Wreckess Eric Covers And The Rest Of My Weekend

Hey hey - what's up?

I got my class ring on Friday! It's pretty sweet looking. For those who don't recall, it's silver metal with a garnet stone in the middle. It's also huge and somewhat garish, which is exactly what I wanted.

I spent most of Friday night learning to play a song on guitar. It's not just any song - it's one I can sing and play! At the same time! It's "Whole Wide World", by Wreckless Eric. It's in the movie Stranger Than Fiction, in which Will Ferrell's character plays it on an acoustic guitar.

I intended to videotape myself playing it and put it up on here, but the camera seems to be out of batteries.

On Saturday, I had solo and ensembles for band. My trio group had only gotten our music the day before, so we didn't expect to get that great of a rating. However, we hadn't counted on not getting one at all; our song was not long enough, and they couldn't give us our medals. I was only doing it for my varsity letter, and now it seems like it'll take me another year.

Urggg...my mom is sleeping on the couch and snoring, loudly. I'm going to go get headphones, and tie up the post with that.

2 Years!

Guess what, everyone? Today is Boyd's World's 2-year anniversary! I knew it was soon, and when I went back in the archives to check I was delightfully surprised by coincidence. I had hoped to have my 200th post tie-in with this, but unfortunately that's still ten away.

Just as a few general updates go, it's midwinter break. We've done pretty much nothing exciting, but sometimes just being lazy is great. The heat was turned on a few hours after my whiny post last Wednesday, in case you were wondering. The people from the propane company were "waiting for us to call them back", which made no sense. It was freezing, why couldn't they take initiative?

On Thursday, my Language Arts teacher called me up to her desk during silent reading (how much do you love having that every day in advanced classes?). I had recently written an essay that was apparently good enough to get 100%, a grade rarely given. Because of this, she suggested I look into a few writing contests. Actually, the one she mentioned in particular is the Ayn Rand Institute's essay contest. I was very flattered that she thought I write good enough to be eligible to participate, because I've wanted to participate in it since I first found out about it.

The 8th-10th grade contest is based on questions from the book Anthem, while the 11th-12th questions are on The Fountainhead. I've already read Anthem, because a friend recommended it. Oh, and did I mention there are cash prizes? The Anthem essay has a $2,000 first-place award, and The Fountainhead has a $10,000 prize. I'm totally going to enter, because I could definitely use that.

Other than that, not much has been going on. Last week I started the mandatory half-year of P.E. that is required. It's not too horrible. I don't mind being forced into working out for 45 minutes every day, although I hate having to do sports. I'm not inclined to be good at sports, especially basket ball. Guess what we play every single time we have free-time? I'm sure you can.

I hope everyone else is having interesting times. As for me, well, Internet articles about nothing can be pretty interesting.

Cold....Brrrrrrr

Snow day today!! Actually, this is not a good thing. You see, the school would be warm. However, the inside of my house is about 38 degrees Fahrenheit. We ran out of propane last night, just as an eventual 8 inches of snow started coming down. My grandparents are on vacation, so we loaded up the dogs (yeah...their puppy and 14-year old dog are staying with us) and headed over to their house.

To be honest, I have no clue how I managed to live there. I think it was a bit less terrible while we were there, but that's probably denial. The water that comes out of the tap is yellow, the shower is a tiny concrete pit in the basement (I've never left a shower feeling less clean than when I got in before), and it's just generally non-conforming to my cleanliness standards.

Right now we're back at home, waiting for the propane delivery dude to show up. It's cold as all get-out in here, and we have to leave in about an hour to go to town. Well...if the guy hasn't shown up by then, my mom will have to leave for town. I'll stay in the cold house and wait for propane dude.

Other than the cold, I'm kinda hoping tomorrow is a snow day as well. If it is, we'll have a seven-day weekend. You see, midwinter break starts Friday. I'm kind of hoping to visit Winter-Fest in Detroit this weekend, and maybe go to a hockey game with my girlfriend Keeley and her family.

Well, if you get a chance, please picture enormous bonfires and think in my direction.

Dinner With Family

Well, today I had intended to write a post about my class ring that I was supposed to get today. However, when I went up to the table they had them at and tried it on, I discovered it was two and a half sizes too big. I hadn't been able to make it to the meeting to get my finger size measured, and my mom had to bring in two rings and say "This one is too big and this one is two small. Find the middle."

So, you'll instead have the joy of hearing about my evening. Today was my grandpa's birthday, and we went to dinner at a fancy restaurant in the downtown of the city/town near us. It was a last-minute thing, because I was supposed to have a pep band event at school; however, it was cancelled because the "upper authorities didn't feel it was a good place for the band". This is, of course, referring to a cheerleading competition. You've got to watch out for those cheerleaders, they're deadly.

My mom and I hadn't gotten my grandpa a gift as of when school got out, and we still didn't know what to get him. My mom's gift was some top-shelf whiskey, and I went with a gift card to a kitchen store (he loves to cook). I didn't feel a gift card was very thoughtful, but then we got some cards that made up for it. I wrote a personalized message in mine (round of applause for me).

Back to the restaurant. My mom drove my grandparents to the place, to save gas. I got in the backseat and promptly fell asleep, which has been happening a lot lately. My uncle met us there, and we took our seats. He and I talked guitars for a while, and then our orders arrived.

Let me just say: the food at this restaurant is fantastic. My favourite item on the menu was no longer being made, apparently, but I substituted it with a burger and was delighted at the taste sensation.

The ride home was a bit problematic. My uncle's truck is very very old, and it hasn't been taken care of in the best manner possible. My grandma got a phone call about five minutes after we left the restaurant, causing her to panic and my mother to make a joke about whether she knew how to take a call. My uncle's truck was failing, and he wanted us to follow him home in case he broke down.

Now, at this point you have to know that my grandmother can be a very dramatic person. She started freaking out about him getting home, heaving big sighs and posing in an anguished manner. We made it to his house, and when he told her what he thought was wrong with it she started freaking out even more. There was no reason for this particular freak out; all he said was that he'd have to buy a new belt for the engine.

Once that had settled out, everything was smooth sailing. We made it home okay, and I logged on to write this post.

Hey, I made it to present time! Guess I've filled you in on the evening, with all the uncensored comedy and tragedy inherent. Woohoo!

Exams

This week is all exams at school. That's the quick way of saying my memory is currently being put to the test on half a years' knowledge, a big order.

I'm somewhat concerned about one of the exams I already took, Advanced Social Studies. I won't go on my little rant about how I think the exam is poorly written and the class isn't well taught, because I've been informed I can't blame every bad grade I get on the teacher. I will say that this test is quite important to me, because I hope to be valedictorian and (so far) I've been getting the grades for it.

All in all, however, I think I'm pretty much prepared for the rest of my exams. I've actually studied a bit, and my hardest (the above mentioned Adv. Social Studies) is already over. The other one I've already taken is Geometry, which was incredibly easy. The nice thing about math is that there are no "best choice" type questions. It's right, or it's wrong.

Wish me luck!

A Dispatch From The Western Trip

Today, instead of a post about what's been up, I shall share a tale from the fabled Western trip.

* * *

After a long day of marching and learning, ending in an awesome halftime performance put on by all the high school bands who attended, our High School's band bailed from the game early and headed back to the hotel. We got to relax for about an hour, and then we were given the option to walk to a nearby fast-food place and get a bite to eat. I choose to go for the fast-food, figuring walking through downtown Kalamazoo - a college campus, basically - at 10 P.M. would be interesting. I was definitely right!

We walked about a mile and a half to get to a Burger King we had seen on the drive there, only to discover it was closed. The drive-thru looked like it was still open, and people we walking up to the windows and banging on them. Our band director was standing around and discussing what to do, and my friends and I were standing around talking. While talking bass guitars with my friend Nick, our little group noticed two dudes walking down the sidewalk towards us.

The reason they were noticeable was their outfits; they were both wearing full fur-suited costumes, one being a mouse and the other a lion. They came by, and we stopped them to chat. Apparently, they were headed to a party or something. We got a few cell phone pics with them, and then they headed off to whatever costumed mischief they had planned.

After deciding to walk back in the direction of the hotel and past it to find another place to eat, our group decided to just stay in the hotel. On the way back, my hair was complimented by a very stereotypical bum we passed. I agreed with him that my hair is, in fact, awesome and went on my way.

The strange off-ness about those specific incidents, especially the costumed dudes having a chat with high schoolers wandering through the city, was characteristic of the entire weekend. Everything was just a bit weird in a good way, with mascots and complimentary bums around every corner.

What's Been Up Lately

Quizbowl season has started! at the high school, it's a fall activity. We've been training for a couple of weeks, but our first real match was last Thursday. Woohoo!

I'd forgotten how time-consuming Stumble Upon can be. I had finally read through a large part of the Cracked archives, and turned to it as a possible source of entertainment. Turns out it still wastes my time as much as last year. I have found a lot of stuff that - literally - makes me laugh out loud. Mostly demotivational posters, funny test answers, that sort of thing; every one I read fills me with an urge to force those around me to listen to me reading them aloud. I've gotten good at fighting the temptations to bore others, but sometimes I'm human.

I've also been strumming away at the guitar a lot lately. Who'da thought getting an electric would increase my appreciation for the acoustic? Me either.

I've been reading actual books much more lately, which has been nice. However, I'm a bit stuck as to what to read. For some reason, I've been having a hard time getting at all interested in anything that isn't a classic. This is kind of a problem, because A) there aren't too many out there I find appealing and B) I feel a bit like a pompous jerk stating I only like classics.

Just for the record, I don't just like classics. I really love pop-culture related books, both fiction and non-fiction, as well as science fiction and fantasy. The former is actually my absolute favourite genre, but that's the kind of stuff that isn't carried by school libraries. The latter tends to be difficult for me to get into, unless there's also humour. Did I not mention that? I love the funny stuff as well.

Well, I feel I've reached the perfect ratio of length to interesting-ness. Yes, I just made a new word. Feel free to submit it to Websters, I'm sure they'll recognize it's brilliance.

2009: A Review

I realize I'm about five days late for a New Year's Post, but you're going to have to deal with my eccentric (lazy) behaviour.

Many people I've talked to about the year had mixed opinions about it. One of my mother's friends put it quite well:

"There were a lot of high points in 2009, but to go along with each one was a low. I wish it had been a more mellow year."

I personally feel it was a freaking awesome year, possibly one of the best. You'd like me to list the reasons why? Well, you're in luck!

• I successfully ran a half-marathon in August, going from totally nonathletic to quite fit in the course of 6 months.
• I lost 20 pounds - I'd always thought about how cool it would be to come back to school after summer break totally slim and fit, and this year I achieved that.
• I've learned to play both bass guitar and 6-string. I'm taking lessons for bass, and I've learned actual songs on the 6-string variety of guitar - even a few sweet solos!
• I've made a bunch of new friends in High School - my band trip to Western, often referenced, was an amazing experience for me.
  

Currently, those are the only major achievements for the year that I can think of; trust me, I did more this year than that, but those four really dominate my memory.

I hope everyone had a good 2009, and for those who didn't I hope you have a 2010 so amazing it completely makes up for it!

An Observation

Today was a long, long day - I cleaned my room. Well, I got most of it done. There's still a ton of the small things that collect dust laying in the middle of the room on the floor, as well as stacks of books occupying all flat surfaces. I rearranged just about every piece of furniture in there, and it looks great.

I even got up early to do it...if 10:30 is early. It is when I'm on vacation from school, and on weekends.

I thought of something the other day, and I'm wondering if it's just a coincidence or not. In Twilight, a series all about vampires, the main character's name is Bella. The name of the actor famous for portraying Dracula (also a vampire) in 1931 was Bela Lugosi. Is her name a homage to him? I realized the interesting coincidence while listening to the song "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by The Bauhaus, in which the singer cries "Bela!" over and over.

I'm going to go relax now, because it's been a very long day of productivity and my head is splitting with an allergy headache.

A Christmas In Review

Yesterday was Christmas! Woohoo! In a very self indulgent manner, allow me to run down how it went.

I was fortunate enough to get the three things I had most emphatically asked for: an electric guitar, a black sweater, and Dr. Marten boots. We'll cover those boots first, because they're the ones currently on my mind the most.


They are 14 eyelets on each side, and take about 10 minutes to put on. They're still quite stiff, and I'm told they take a bit of time to get used to walking in. My uncle said he had a pair just like them when he was younger, and my mom used to wear 8 and 10 eyelet ones.

In an attempt to break them in today, I wore them on a run. Don't worry - I didn't actually try to run. I knew that would be suicide. However, even after walking about a mile, my feet hurt something terrible. I couldn't catch up with my mom when she walked any faster than I was going. She reassured me by reminding me I had my tennis shoes in the car, but I decided not to put them on. A little pain was probably going to be a part of the breaking in process, right?

We went to Barnes & Noble to get fancy coffee after the run/walk, and I still had the boots on. I was fairly certain at that point that my heels were bleeding, but I did not care. I'm somewhat stupid when it comes to pain, especially in the name of fashion. The original punks wouldn't have cared about terrible blisters, although they weren't exactly in a state of mind to feel anything.

Warning: if you get grossed out, don't read the next paragraph.

When I came home, I took those pictures and then took the boots off. I took the right off first, although the left was the foot with the most pain. My right sock had a small spot on it that was greyish-yellowish-red, and when I took it off I saw there was a teeny tiny blister (the grey was from the leather). "Not bad," I thought. Then I took my left boot off. There was an enormous spot on that sock, and a huge blister underneath. A quarter could not have covered the entire thing. Needless to say, I now have two large band-aids on my heels.


That is my new guitar. It's a real Fender Stratocaster, and it's left handed. Apparently it used to be right-handed, but my uncle's friend, from whom he got it, flipped it. I got it about an hour after we got to my Grandparent's house, and I played it continually until we left 5 hours later. My fingertips are horribly shredded, but as you can obviously see, I don't mind my gifts causing me pain.

I started to suspect I was getting a guitar when A) my uncle wouldn't let me go into the spare bedroom to hang up my coat and B) when there was no gift from him, only a guitar case from his cat. Eventually someone pointed the latter out, and he told me to go take a look in his truck. I did. There was nothing there.

I came back in and told him I didn't see what I was looking for, when everyone started laughing and he said, "It's sitting right there." He was pointing at my chair, where it was sitting. He was actually crying, something I've never seen before.

In addition to those two, I received many thoughtful gifts. Plus, the tight black sweater I mentioned! I requested it "to wear while I listen to The Cure and The Bauhaus". It looks great with my black skinny jeans and 14 - eyelet Docs.

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful Christmas, and got to spend it with family and friends.

Christmas Break!

I watched the movie Labyrinth today - man is it weird. I wanted to see it because it has David Bowie in it, and a blogger I follow has a quote from it on her blog that made it seem pretty funny.

Where to even begin? The puppets were actually very good. The visual effects were somewhat decent - especially for the 80's. However, it was so absurdly strange I cannot even describe it. I am actively forgetting it as I type.

Actually, typing this all as it comes into my mind, looking back I kind of enjoyed it. I think the few hours between my viewing of it and my typing of this mellowed it out a bit. The scenes featuring David Bowie were my favourite, of course. He was just the right mixture of creepy and charming.

Today was the last day of school until January 4th! Yay for break! Apparently a lot of classes had free days, but I had two tests and a major project to complete before I got to experience any festive-ness. Oh, and one other thing - in Health class, we had to watch a video of a live birth. The general adjective used by everyone to describe it was "Unnecessary". I agree with that, because I see no reason why they should have to show that. I suppose it is a very good argument for abstinence, the only form of birth control they're allowed to teach.

From 4th hour on, thankfully, I got to put aside learning for the rest of this year. In 4th hour we went to the library and spent the hour reading. OK, to be honest, there was more chit-chatting than actual reading going on.

5th and 6th hour were the school-wide celebration, which was a reward for raising, as a school, over 2 thousand dollars for a local charity. Each classroom had different activities going on in it, and you signed up for them the week previous. I signed up to watch Napoleon Dynamite, a film whose funniness I had forgotten. It was a blast, mostly because I got to watch it with friends.

Well, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to go and strum randomly on the acoustic for a while. Happy holidays, in case I don't post again before Christmas!

It Feels Good To Be Blogging, My Friends

Hey, dear readers, how's it going? Right now I'm listening to "Rebel, Rebel" by David Bowie, a song I can kind of play on guitar. It sounds weird because it's meant for an electric and I use my mom's acoustic (restrung for my left-handedness, of course).

I'm really hoping to get an electric guitar for Christmas, and since my uncle works at the pawn shop, there's a good chance of that happening. However, he has a bit of an issue with the fact I don't mind playing a right-handed guitar upside-down, and I've gotten into multiple arguments about that with him. He's talked about how the guitar isn't "ergonomic" enough, and that will make playing harder - the weight of a guitar is more likely to mess me up than a corner digging into my ribs will. He also throws around various terms he either read somewhere out of context, or just made up completely. It's kind of infuriating, because he doesn't actually know anything about playing guitar - he only knows the stuff he needs to know to sell it for more money and take it in on pawn for less.

Anyway - on to lighter stuff. High school is going absolutely awesome! The fact all four classes pretty much mingle now has made finding people like myself a bit easier, and I'd say I've made some pretty good friends. The most beneficial thing to making friends was the fabled "Trip To Western". I don't recall if I mentioned it in any posts, but basically the marching band went to Western Michigan University for a weekend and had a ton of insane fun. None of my friends went, forcing me to pretty quickly make some new ones. Fortunately, there's no better place for forging relations than a very fancy hotel at 1 A.M. Euchre is a game made more fun simply by being played in odd places, such as a skywalk or hotel lobby next to a drunk wedding party.

I've yet to do my Christmas shopping, which is a bit concerning. I'm hoping to go with my grandpa this weekend, which is cutting it pretty close. I still have no clue what I'm getting anyone but my mom and my grandparents, but I've gotten a few suggestions. Last year, I got my grandpa to go into Hot Topic with me to get my mom's gifts - that was a riot!

I've been moving both backward and forward in time with music listening lately. I've been getting into modern alternative a bit more lately, because I know that's where I'll probably end up as a musician myself. I need to get to know the terrain a bit, learn the tricks of the trade. I've also been digging bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones, not to mention David Bowie. OK, they're not really of a time period different than I've listened to, but they were always looked over in the past. Just to add on to a lengthy paragraph, I've started to really like Nirvana. A good 25% of the stuff I've learned to play on guitar (acoustic, not my bass) is Nirvana. My only complaint is that they tuned almost all of their songs different than standard, making them unplayable.

Well, I feel a duty to give you a break after all that reading. Be prepared, however, for another post soon. I'm single, I don't have a driver's license, and I've just about read everything funny on Cracked.com, so I should be able to post more often. I think with the approaching winter that will be easier, because it's too cold for anything else to be going on. Good day to you, dear readers!

Sublymonal

Does anyone else remember those incredibly weird Sprite commercials from last year? They were centered around "Lymon", and seemed to be purposefully trippy. I'd kind of forgotten, until I was wandering around in the links at Cracked.com and found an article featuring one. I was intrigued, and headed to Youtube to do a bit of research for myself. I found this dude, who states he made his 2 - part video out of various scenes from the "Lymon Project".

I felt I should spread the weird. I'd like to provide a link to the actual "Sublymonal" website, but it gives me a 403 error whenever I try to get there. Oh well. Enjoy! (or fear!)

Happy Thanksgiving

As many of you are surely aware, today is Thanksgiving. I have had a pretty good one, all things considered.

First things first, the food this year was the best I've ever experienced. There's normally one or two things I don't like, and I've never been too much of a fan of poultry. However, everything rocked this year. I even loved the turkey, which was very tasty and completely free of nasty fat/skin/dark meat.

Since my mom and I got our own house, we've hosted the meal. Our family is very small - I'm the only kid, and actually the only one under 40. Like every other year, the attendees were my grandparents, my uncle, and my great-aunt with her boyfriend Ernie.

My grandparents got a Labrador puppy last Sunday, and they brought him along too. There was a debate as to what his name should be, with options such as Buck and Ruger being tossed around (it's hunting season, and their store is a DNR deer check station). Eventually, however, the name Buster was chosen. Buster is freaking hilarious, and gets really hyper and plays and then crashes and naps. I'll post a picture when I remember to take one, someday.

I've got a lot of things to be thankful for this year, although I don't really want to list them all. I hope everyone reading this has had a good day as well, and I'd be thankful if you have. (Get it? Thankful? And it's Thanksgiving? Never mind...)

Everybody Wang Chung Tonight

I sincerely apologize for my lack of posting, despite the fact an article in Wired said you shouldn't do that. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what's keeping me from posting. I have a large number of started posts, bu none I seem to finish. Anyhoo.


So, yesterday I had a party. It was a smashingly successful one, considering more than two people came. That's what happened at my last two, anyway. I think a major helping point was the fact I gave out invites more than two days before, this time being prepared an entire week early. I also invited a TON of people, knowing not all would show up. At the highest point of attendance, there were 9 people in my basement.


Because of the fact I have upperclassman friends, some people drove. For some reason, that absolutely blows my mind. Is that strange? I suppose in a few years, it might blow my mind that some people won't be driving.


The party was obnoxiously loud from the very beginning, because of the drum kit and my record player. I could hear the party from outside the house. Seriously, at the beginning of the party only three people were there, and the drumming started as soon as we went downstairs. To be brutally honest, it wasn't really even drumming, just noise. I have two pairs of sticks, and two different people were hitting them randomly at the same time, different tempos. My mother requested it stopped pretty early on.


We had Guitar Hero set up, as well as pool, so everyone stayed well entertained. After a while everyone got bored with the GH, and we put on some Zeppelin (specifically, Led Zeppelin IV). Trust me, with the people that were there, that is very danceable music. Actually, the dancing was rather insane. There are three support beams (pole-like objects) down there, and Cory saw them as an invitation to dance rather, ahem, wildy. When I went upstairs to get more chippage, my mom asked what on earth we were doing to make the floor vibrate.


At one point, I received a cell phone call from my friend Courtney, who was there. I saw her holding a phone, so I assumed it was her and hit ignore. I didn't check to see if it was home or mobile, which was a mistake. Eventually, I asked her to stop calling me, and she said, "What? I don't have a cellphone." It was someone else's phone she was holding, and her dad was trying to call me. I went upstairs with her to call him back, and had to explain why I ignored him 4 times.

"Oh, I thought Courtney was calling me."

"Isn't she there??"

"Um, yeah, but I figured she was fooling around with her cellphone or something..."

"She doesn't have a cellphone."

"Oh. Um..."

"Can I just talk to Courtney?"

He was calling about giving someone a ride, or something.


It was a totally awesome party, with guitar playing, pool, obnoxious drumming, and records. I had a ton of fun, and I think the same applies to everyone (hopefully!). I'm really lucky to have friends who can have fun with what they're doing, instead of complaining about what they could be doing.

Searched!

Wow - something freaky happened today. During second hour, the police brought the drug dogs to the school to sniff around and find drugs. I honestly didn't even know they were doing it - until I was pulled out of class.

The vice principal came by my class and said, "I need Drew Morgan." when I came out of the class room, he started walking and told me, "I don't mean to scare you, I know you're a good kid, but the dogs detected something in the group of lockers by yours. If you don't mind, I need to search yours." I knew I had no reason to be freaked out because there was nothing in mine, and I knew my locker partner had nothing, but still...

He pulled my locker partner out of class too, and he opened up our locker. He started pulling our bags and coats out, searching pockets and everything. He was making jokes to try and make us a bit less nervous, but it didn't really work. Neither of us could stop laughing, but it was kind of that "Oh crap" sort of laughter. He moved our books around, made jokes about what was in our lunch boxes, etc.

At one point, he opened my book bag and pulled out this little brown and dusty square of wax paper. It looked very "suspicious", and he said "What's this?" in a rather serious tone. I was trying to think of a way to reassure him it wasn't drugs when he threw it back in and said "Looks like an old muffin wrapper. Gross!"


When he looked in the pocket of my bag I put books I read for enjoyment in, he pulled out one that happened to be in there. Cory (the locker partner) busted out laughing, and I just stood there feeling mortified. I had a copy of the book Sex, Drugs, and Coco-Puffs by Chuck Klosterman in there. The cover art is a cereal bowl full of pills. I said, "Umm, it has less to do with that stuff that you'd think," as he studied it. He said he was just seeing who the author was, because he was an L.A. teacher before being vice principal and had never heard of it. That brought many a laugh in the retelling of the story, believe me.

After we passed the search, he told us to go and wait for him in the office while he conducted the rest of the searches. apparently, he calls your parents even if there's nothing found. Two by two, other people started walking in with a nervous look on their faces.

"You got searched too?"

"Yup."

"Find anything?"

"Nope."

That conversation went on a few times, until all eight people whose lockers were searched came in. One girl said they found Motrin, but she wasn't going to get in trouble for it. Even though everyone was done, the vice principal still took forever. By the time he started making calls, 2nd hour was almost over.

Each call took about 5 minutes, so passing time came and went with us still in the office. Something else happened that required his immediate attention, so he wrote us passes and said he'd call us down when he wasn't busy. We both went to our 3rd hr, Health, and got to retell the epic story a few times before my name came over the intercom. I went down, and he dialed my mom's number. She was in class, so we had to wait as someone was found to babysit her class while she talked on the phone with him. I had to sit there for a good 3 minutes making small talk before she came on the line.

Their conversation went pretty quick, although it sounded like my mom was a little annoyed at having her class interrupted. Later, I found out this was because she was somewhat nervous herself, even though the very first thing said was "Don't worry, Drew's not in trouble."


The rest of the day was pretty much spent making jokes about getting searched. Cory said he's going to bring in dog treats on Monday and keep them in our locker the rest of the year. I think he means it, too.


Now I'm prepared for Halloween; good luck scaring me more than that did!