What a Party!!!

Wow...a party of a grand nature as I have not seen in a long time!! There is a theatre, a one screen movie theatre, in downtown Lafayette. It's quite old and so about 10 years ago the city started a renovation project. Goodness knows the old place needed it. Well, yesterday the old theatre had a grand reopening! It has been transformed into a theatre, not for movies, but for plays, big receptions, parties, performances etc. And last night, there was a rather large and fancy party. There was music, dancing, food (of course...), refreshments, live entertainment. How every the best of the whole occasion appeared at at the dessert table (as always!). Imagine with me for a moment a small water fountain, about foot high, with circular steps to the top, with water flowing out in all directions over it. Now, instead of water, imagine pure chocolate flowing down the fountain. It was so stunningly magnificent you could just stand there and look at it! Until, of course, you got over the "staring/wanting" mode and quickly switched to the "getting" mode! They had strawberries, pretzel sticks, marshmallow, cookies, cherries, and you could hold any of these items under the fountain and coat it in fresh mouth-watering chocolate! Ah, once you went through the line once, you found yourself back in the line for more, and pretty soon, you realize that all you have been doing for the past few minutes was going back into the same line for more! And for good cause too! Wow, absolutely entrancing I tell you!

Also that night I got to enjoy the Lafayette ballet company and it's end of the year presentation. Quite fascinating and intriguing. The more I watch ballet performances the more I realize how clumsy I am...but, then again, they have been practicing on how to be graceful as much as I am slouching in my chair doing school work, so there isn't any wonder at all in that fact...If you have never been to a ballet performance...well, your missing out...even though it does seem to make you look like a bumbling rhinoceros...lol!

Oh, one more thing....I GOT A GUITAR!! yes, imagine that, an orange starburst, fender, acoustic guitar with a case! I can't wait to start fiddling around with it. I have wanted one for a while, but now, with all the money I saved up over the summer, I finally have one!

well, sorry for the lack of postage, it has been a really busy week...I know I know, a lame excuse...but I don't have any more...lol!

Dentists and Wisdom teeth

I don't know what it is, but dentists seem to have a knack for pulling wisdom teeth. I mean, how many people do YOU know who hasn't had there wisdom teeth pulled. I would rather keep my wisdom teeth. But, as they say, "it's all for your own good because you mouth isn't big enough to keep those teeth". Well, maybe it's a good thing my mouth isn't that big, I mean, it's big enough...well...
So, tomorrow morning I will be having my wisdom teeth pulled t 9:00. So while you are all doing schoolwork, or working or what have you, I will be fast asleep on drugs...exciting huh?...and will be probably sleeping all through tomorrow. It should be quite an uneventful day...really...

Besides all that, if you could pray that the operation works like it's supposed to and that they pull ONLY the wisdom teeth I would appreciate it. It's not exactly a nice knowing that some random person is going to be digging around my mouth while I'm on drugs pulling teeth out...but...that's the life of a 21st century teenager...

Whew!

Wow,
blogging contests are now over!! well, for me at least. I can now blog like a normal human being...they were fun while they lasted though. I think I need to take a break from blogging everyday, I need to do something productive!! Haha, well, I hoped you all enjoyed the many posts, because it's not easy to post that much!!

The closing finale of the school year...

So, the debate class and the drama class both had their end of the year finale's last night...in some ways, that was a good thing. I got both classes done and out of the way. However for, other reasons, it was slightly interesting...such as having a beard for the mock debate because I needed it for the play...But besides that, it was a great night!







the powers of persuasion...during the mock debate...







taking notes like a good debate student...;-)






And the then there was the play...I played the grand part of Jack...the pirate who doesn't do anything...






the 3 pirates who don't do anything...











"check that out"



well, since my mom decided to grab a brand new sweet looking digital, I had to post of couple of the pictures. Enjoy the technology...

Jack Sparrow?

Hey, what do you think of Jack Sparrow? I mean is he the hope of America or does he constitute what is evil about America, I want to know your thoughts. If Jack Sparrow were president how do you think he would run the country? Random observation...

I just so happened to be in a mock debate about...you guessed it...PIRATES! The resolution...that the united states should enact a national monument to pirates. So Jack Sparrow, of course, just so happened to enter the argument...so tell me what you think of him. A hero, and good man...or a glamorized, hollwoodized, drunk pirate...

When you make the judges cry...

!!!!!!!!! Wow, today was amazing!! Tonight we had the next competition for share the fun. Basically round 2. Daniel Carr won again! and I won with my composition! So it was a great night! One of the judges said that my piece almost made her cry, and that when I had my own concerts she wanted tickets! lol! I had a lot of fun. I should post some pics....my mom just bought a sweet new digital camera so she has been shooting pictures every ten seconds!! Well, I have another big day tomorrow...have a great night!

I need to start posting...

This is a crazy week!! I got, a play and a couple performances coming up, so posting is getting harder and harder...oh well, hopefully some of you can sympathize with me...all of you who find it difficult to post every day, well, leave a comment...we'll see how many I come up with...lol

Ah!

I need more days like these...


The last time I saw a really cool sunrise, I mean, a spectacular one, was when we were driving on the highway on our way to Wyoming few years back, and the sunrise was so amazing it just took my breath away and after sputtering to get my breath back, the sight was gone. Almost instantly as the clouds moved around and it disappeared. I haven't seen anything like it since. What’s the best sunrise or sunset you've seen?

A Clandestine Plan for Survival...

Ah, the party was great! I did a lot of talking this time...not as much sports. Considering I haven't played any basketball very much at all, I didn't really feel like wearing myself out and getting all sweaty. But through all the fun, I realized I really needed an escape plan. Provided I didn't get any sleep I would be tired the next morning. I had drama practice to get through from like 11 in the mooring to 5 in the afternoon. I needed a plan to get me through the next day; so I came up with this...

First the necessities...

1. I really needed to get some caffeine at some point in time.
2. Can't have donuts in the morning, that doesn't help the rest of the day.
3. Milk works well
4. I need at least an hour of sleep
5. I need more then just caffeine, but some sugar later
6. I can't stop moving!
6. Caffeine takes while to take effect on me.
7. ...I knew there were more but I can't think of them yet...

Ok, so with that info I formed the strategy. I was given a Red Bull that night by a great person...(without him, it wouldn't have been possible) so the caffeine was taken care of. In the morning they would certainly have cereal so there is my milk, however I had to make sure not to have anything TOO sugary because that would defeat the whole purpose of not eating donuts...

So after the eating the cereal, I would lay kinda low so I would get tired. I needed every ounce of sleep on the way back from Indy to stay awake so I needed to make myself real tired. I also have a really hard time sleeping in the car, so I needed to make myself as sleepy as possible. Then right as soon as we were about to leave I would drink the red bull. Now this was the risky part. Caffeine, like I said, doesn't effect me very fast, so if I drank it before we left for Indy I could still get sleep in the van. Then I would be able to sleep all the way to Indy without a problem and even maybe sleep on the way to my house. Now once, I was at my house I would keep moving until drama practice. I was going to be there a long time, and I needed a way to keep the adrenaline stimulation. So I thought well, if I am going to be there over lunch time, someone is going out to Lunch. And lunch is ALWAYS a fast food restaurant, so I can easily get a frosty, or mcflurry or whatever. Then by the time the red bull caffeine effect wears out, I'll still have some sugar to carry me the rest of the way. And then when I get home and eat, I will then stop moving and fall right to sleep at 8 and sleep till 8 the next morning.

I tell you it was the most perfect plan ever!! And get this, IT WORKED!! I had cereal, laid low, drank the red bull, slept all the way to Lafayette real soundly too, I stayed active at home, went to drama, my suspicion was correct and we went to McDonald, had a mcflurry, stayed active till we got home (after eating at wendy's in the evening) and then got home, and went to sleep promptly at 8! I slept then all the way without disturbance till 8 this morning! It was right on! I need to do more of those...

Anger Management...

How do you vent your anger?

1. Yelling
2. Throwing things
3. Shutting yourself in your room
4. Making faces
5. Pushing people
6. Kicking

Whenever I get angry I immediately start to throw things. Be it, a math book, paper, pencil, eraser, light bulb...I am still, however, waiting for the day when I will chuck a fork in the wall...

Party Time!!

Yes, down in Indy, I am partying tonight! A bunch of teens from our church denomination are getting together in some oversized school building to go crazy for a night and coming back tomorrow morning. It'll be interesting to note my mental situation tomorrow at drama practice...Oh well, it'll be worth it! Some food, games, hanging out, group hysterics, you name it, it's gonna happen! Well, I hope the rest of you have a great friday night! I will...

Pacers!

Outta nowhere! Pacers weren't expected to do anything, but what do you know...Their leading the series with the nets 2 to 1! And they have officially stolen the home court advantage from the nets. O'Neal and AJ were on fire tonight!! Double double, both of 'em. The pacers are well on their way to a little fun in this tourney. Even with their dull start they are starting to pick things up a notch. This tourney is getting interesting...

For those of you who look at the above paragraph as if it was a different language...well, hang on, I'll post something else tomorrow...

A little driving fun at Purdue...

If you have ever driven at a large campus, you will know exactly what I am talking about! It's the type of place where random people decide that the cool thing of the moment is walking in front of your car which happens to be traveling at 30 mph. Or the place where on gameday Saturday morning, guys with big fuzzy hats and yellow and black faces think that biking in the middle of the road in traffic after a good plastering at the "where else bar" is so tight. You get the idea. In fact, on the way to bible study, I was driving (ha, yes, ME driving...) in the middle of campus and got stopped at a light. In front of me was a large beat up van. All of a sudden out of nowhere a guy with a skateboard comes running out in the middle of the road and chucks a skateboard in the passenger side window and hangs on the side of the van talking with the driver. When the light turned green, the van starts pulling out in the intersection with the guy hanging on the side. As the van gained speed the guy dives in the van through the window with his legs flying around in the air. It was so randomly hysterical I forgot to get moving myself! You get to see some priceless stuff at Purdue. I tell you, there are some pretty interesting privileges to living right on the edge of campus...or consequences...succeeds in making life interesting...

Yo

This is totally random, but you should watch my Big Fat Greek Wedding.
So long, from your ever watchful,
~Merlin~

Ok, if you start seeing posts like this on your blog, you know that either...

1. Your siblings have figured out your username and password
2. A computer geek has taken over blogger
3. MOAB has succeeded at ruining blogger
4. You've been around Josh Bright too much...
5. Your team members are going crazy...
6. Your computer has a strange virus
7. Or your in a blogging tournament and you really needed another post and you couldn't find out anything else to say

Actually my brother wrote the above statements, so the 1st choice is my case here...sort of. But considering a blogging tournament is in the works, expect anything...i actually enjoyed my big fat greek wedding. Anyone else? well talk to you all later...

More tournaments...

Ha! You think you had enough of the last tournament, well you’re wrong! I am right in the middle of another one. The first one just gave us seeds and numbers, so this tournament is by elimination, much like the road to the final four. Just, with a slightly smaller number of bloggers...not quite 64...I enjoy the tournaments though. They get you posting, and you have to find a way to post everyday to stay alive. It's not easy to find something really interesting to post about everyday. Apparently I just advanced to the elite 8! So we'll see how long that lasts...

This last weekend held quite the excitement for me. It started of course with the "day to remember" on Thursday. Then I found myself at a high ropes course on Friday at a campground west of Indy (twin lakes) that lasted from morning to late afternoon. Then I crashed CC's pizza with our youth group that night and went bowling to finish it all off. On Saturday I dragged myself to the church workday and thoroughly enjoyed myself, especially when I ended up at a friend’s house directly afterwards to have dinner. I had a cram packed full weekend with a lot of fun, however downsides to cram packed full weekends is that they tend to make Monday mornings a little more...tedious...oh well, so what was your weekend like?

A night to remember...(that just sounds way too overused...)

Ok, anyway, besides the overused title, tonight was a night to remember! We had our annual "share the fun" contest for 4-H. Our club sort of ruled the contest, with 12 acts. Only two were from another club. I participated in two events. I played my newest composition on the piano and I participated in a group skit about pirates. Both the skit and my piano piece won first so I am advancing to the regional competition. But some one else shocked everyone. I don't how many of you know Daniel Carr, but if you do, you would know that he is an amazing pianist, but also has a speech impairment. But tonight he proved something to everyone. He got up on stage, and gave a humorous interpretation speech. I know he has worked hard to conquer his speech problem and last tonight he did it...He won first place in the non musical act, and is advancing to the regionals! I have never seen anyone with the guts that he's got. I know how hard he was worked to speak well, and to carry on conversations with people. Now, he has finally won a competition giving a speech!! I know what this guy has gone through and I think it's the coolest thing that he finally proved to people that he can get up on stage and give a speech without stuttering!! Anyway, it was a glorious night having audience appreciation of my music and winning in a skit, but best of all, finally being able to see Daniel succeed in speech!

Purdue

I am getting a tour of Purdue tomorrow...(even though I know too much about it already!) but it kinda reminds me that my high school years are coming to a close, and the college roller coaster is about to begin. Even though I have another year to sort things out, I still feel that high school is ending too fast. In some ways I should because "technically" I am graduating a year early, but besides that, it does seem a bit too fast. Looking back, these four years of high school have been great. I have met a TON of new people, joined a bunch of groups, made a lot of new friends, played some sports, and much more. These past four years have been a wonderful time. Now, college looms in front of me...haha, well not really, it'll be much more enjoyable once I figure out what to do!

Enough of that...on Thursday I have a performance competition thing for 4-H. I am performing one of my new compositions, so that should be exciting! And I am in some crazy skit where I'll be playing music from the Pirates of the Caribbean. I really need to get that sound track! Well, I guess I better get practicing...Have great day!

Guys in the kitchen...

"Guys can't cook!" "Guys don't even need to know how to cook!"
I don't know who said those lines but I haven't heard anything more false about cooking! Really, guys need to know how to cook and guys CAN cook. I rather enjoy kicking the women out of the kitchen and making something up...and when your sister asks you to make her birthday dinner, you know at least the stuff you dream up is edible! What started me off with cooking is an old recipe for pancakes. My grandma first taught me how to make Norwegian pancakes. Norwegian pancakes are some of the best pancakes out there! Now these pancakes aren't your normal 6" across things, these are very flat, and cover the whole frying pan, so it takes some considerable practice to flip them without breaking! So, with much patience, endurance, mistakes, and victories...I succeeded in forming my first pancake, (this was when I was around like 9). Ever since that introduction to cooking, it's been downhill from there. I started to make different things such as dessert's, steaks and meat dishes, casseroles etc. My favorite kind of food is Italian, so I just got a really fancy Italian cookbook for Christmas (yeah, it came to that, getting cookbooks for Christmas!!). A friend of mine enjoys cooking as well, so recently we have started cooking more or less fancy Italian meals once in a while for our families. One time we made, Chunky Gourmet Lasagna, a side of mozzarella sticks and a Mint chocolate dessert. Wow, that was a good dinner! Now I don't even need a cookbook to make things or spice things up anymore. I feel comfortable in the kitchen...
Another thing which keeps me going are my experiences with restaurants. Whenever I go to restaurants I most always get slightly disappointed with the quality of the food, like it's always slightly artificial. Except for pizza of course! But everything else, it seems artificial somehow. But when I cook, it's all from scratch and homemade, so there's no artificial taste at all, and that's what really fueled my desire to make my own food. So guys really need to know how to cook. Talk about essential skills...So...who else cooks?

Real Chocolate!

Imagine a chocolate candy that melts in your mouth and tastes so good, you are living in another world when you eat it. It drags you away from reality and all you could see, smell, feel, is the chocolate...
Alright, so with that image in your head you can know get the idea of what I experienced when I bit into one of the chocolates my brother brought back from Germany. Adam waited till today to show them to us, and I can tell you right now, I haven't eaten real chocolate until today! That stuff was so good, it destroyed any other idea of what chocolate was like! I had a hazelnut chocolate egg, and I haven't tasted any dessert that was better!
However...there is a downside to authentic German chocolate, and that happens to be, that, everything is in German! So, it takes more then a quick glance to figure out what the flavors are, and what's in it. Some are more obvious then others such as, "Haselnuss-nougat" which is definitely Hazelnut. But others are little more...well, vague. Such as "Marc De Champagne". Well, since I am a little more adventurous in nature, I decided to try it. I figured it may be flavored with some sort of champagne type of spice or something but nothing really major or anything. So I ate the "Marc De Champagne egg". At first it tasted fine and I thought it was really good, but then all of a sudden a taste hit me and almost knocked me over. It was the most powerfully, shockingly strong taste ever! I nearly fell over, and it was the strangest taste I have ever tasted, chocolate and this...other stuff! After I had finished it I as talking to my dad about it and he noted that my breath smelled like alcohol...I though he was joking and so my mom comes in says, "Andrew! your breath smells like alcohol!!" So that seemed to explain the powerful strange taste. So I figured if I got drunk, well, it was off of chocolate! But really, imagine chocolate and alcohol! kinda weird...lol! So I have officially been introduced to Alcohol! With chocolate of all things! Hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight...who knows?

If this isn't a busy day I don't know what is...

Wow, yesterday was so busy! It started with my sister dragging me out of bed at 6 in the morning to play monopoly ( I think the monopoly tournament did something to her...) and then right after that we took off to the home school co-op and I had classes for 3 hours or so. And then I had to practice some music with some people. Right after practicing, I went home to eat lunch and do some research on certain music for a graduation I am playing for. I barely squeezed in that before we left for my piano lessons. We rushed home directly only to find that some friends were waiting on our front door, and then I remembered that I was supposed to practice a skit that we were forming for a 4-H talent night thing. So I started practicing with them and more people started coming for this skit thing, until about 6 cars were parked by our house. It seriously looked like I was having a party!! And we almost were...so when they left I had to rush and get my stuff together for a session in 22' rifle at the range. So as soon as I got all that ready and grabbed some food off the counter my dad showed up and drove me to the range. I was kinda getting tired then...But I had a good shoot. I had the spinners going crazy, so it was a good night for me. When I finally got back home, it was 10 o'clock in the evening. Talk about a non-stop day!! I only have those like, once or twice a week...and that's plenty!