Perhaps the Last One

The last weekend of the school year. The last required blog of my life, probably. Such a huge, momentous occasion, what to blog about? Perhaps this is meant to be the most important, worth while blog of the whole year, that last one. But....nah. I guess this whole blogging thing turned out not to be as terrible as it seemed at the beginning. It has actually been kind of fun reading other people's blogs every week. Well, at least up until the end of the first semester. Since then I don't think half of the people still blog, which makes it a little less special, but nonetheless it's still neat. By blogging every week we've been exposed to a newer sort of communication. We've gained new experiences with how the internet can be used. Now that part is over, the blogging part. Is anyone still gonna blog during the summer?

Woh! Wait, there are Five!?

If you're reading this, there is a 90% chance that you live in, or near Albert Lea. That being the case, I'm sure that you know how many water towers there are in town. There's the one by Southwest, the one by Brookside, the one by the library, and finally the one out by Home Depot. That's all of them, right?
Wrong.
It's ok though, I didn't know about the fifth one until just a few days ago, so don't get too down on yourself. I was riding my bicycle out and about around town the other night (it was a nice evening for a bike ride) and I stumbled upon an area of town that I had never known about before. Out by 11th street there is an industrial park. I think it's called Jobs Inc. or something. There are buildings and warehouses all over the place. There is also a small neighborhood over there that I had never known of before. Not only that, but there is a water tower! Crazy, I know. I felt like I was lost at first, but the water tower said Albert Lea on it, so I knew I wasn't. I just thought I'd share that with you, for your own personal knowledge.
Albert Lea: The Land Between the Lakes, and The Town of 5 Water Towers. Who knew?

A Dime for a Rhyme?

Rain
Pouring wet rain.
Some people think it's a pain.
I kind of like it, so they call me insane.
They say it's mundane.
If only they could refrain
From using these harsh words.

I looked outside today.
A cold, wet, misty spray.
Well, the grass needs it, no point to delay.
It should be expected, after all, it is May.
"Why do you write this pointless poem?" you say.
I have to for a grade, ok?
Anyway...

Redbox? Nice.

You know who must be really rich? Well, whoever it was that you were thinking about, is probably not who I was thinking about. You may have been thinking Bill Gates, or the founder of Google, or something. Not me though. I was thinking about the founder of RedBox. You know, those movie rental station thingys at HyVee and such. Whoever's idea that was, is a genius. I mean really, renting a movie for $1. Granted, you usually have to take it back like the next day or so, but that's plenty of time to watch it once, maybe even twice if you cram it in there. Think about it though. When you think of inventing something and getting rich, you wouldn't think about a movie rental station. That takes some great, outside-the-box thinking. That's my take on it anways.

Ohboyohboyohboy!

Wouldn't you know it, the school year is almost over! Only about three more weeks of waking up, going to school, coming home, doing homework, and then trying to get some sleep. What a relief. Of course, that doesn't mean it's ok to slack off for the last few days. You want to finish strong...unless you really want to take the finals and/or go to summer school. Even if it's not that extreme, you want to be mindful of your grades, colleges will probably take into consideration what type of student you were in 10th grade. (I'm guessing that anyone that reads this is in 10th grade, due to the fact that no one outside of the two J-10 classes even know we have to blog.)
It's neat to think about this past year. In the fall, everyone was excited to be back at school, to see all their friends again. It didn't necessarily go by the fastest, but it wasn't a big deal. Then winter came. Winter. That's when everything slowed way down. Winter always seems to take forever.
Once things start to get nice again though, everyone's outlook brightens. Next thing you know, you've only got two months of school left...then only one. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Summer is almost here! Fun fun fun! (As you can tell, my blogs are becoming less and less insightful...but hey, it's almost summer.)

What a nice day...

Today is a beautiful day. The sun is shining, it's about 70 degrees, no clouds, a slight breeze is blowing...and I'm stuck inside doing homework. I guess, it's just one of those things you gotta get done. Only about a month of school left anyways, so I suppose I can handle it. But I still really wanna get done with this stuff and go outside. That's why this blog is gonna end pretty shortly. I find that as the weather becomes nicer, my blogs become shorter...but that's fine with me. I mean my grade in this class hasn't been updated for a month on edline, so for all I know, we don't even have to blog anymore.

Sugar=yum yum

Have you ever eaten a jellybean? Or what about some yummy cotton-candy? I'm pretty sure you have, especially if you live in America. Do you realize what all that stuff is? Sugar! It's pure, delicious, bad-for-your-teeth sugar! It's remarkable how tasty people can make that sort of stuff though. It even comes in flavors. Flavored sugar, what a good deal! If you just let the cotton-candy sit in your mouth, it won't be there for long. The enzymes in your mouth will break it down so quickly, you won't even have time to recite the Gettysburg Address. It's really quite a fascinating, the whole process of digestion and such. We're learning about it in biology right now. Good stuff...

I have a bottle...do you?

I have, in my hand, a plastic bottle. But this is no ordinary plastic bottle (yes, I did start a sentence with "but"). No, this is a Sam's Choice Clear American bottle of Golden Peach Naturally Flavored Sparkling Water. Now despite the fact that there are "other natural flavors," I'll tell you why this is an amazing drink. This 33.8 fluid ounce bottle (that's pretty much one liter) is caffeine free, has zero calories, and is also sodium free. Now how many places can you find a deal like that? This isn't the usual flavored mineral water. It's almost a clash between that and actual soda. Or pop. Wherever you're from and whatever you're most comfortable saying, I guess. Although pop is correct. Back the the bottle though...Oh my! You can get a cash refund for 5 cents in California, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Oregon, Conneticut, Vermont, and Delaware. Of course Michigan offers a 10 cent refund for returning the bottle, but that's just because people there are just a bunch of over achievers. Well, maybe not. That's a bit of a stretch in terms of stereotyping, but whatever. Over the course of me writing this blog, the bottle has gone to being completely full to nearly empty. Does that prove that writing makes you thirsty? Absolutely not, but if wanna say it does, I'm not really gonna argue with you.

Prom

I guess prom is this coming weekend. Fancy dresses, fancy hair, fancy shoes, fancy suits, fancy this, fancy that. Despite all the hustle and bustle of getting everything done in time for it, I think it should be a fun time. I'm sure I'll look back at it in 25 years and think, "Wow that was a neat experience." I'm a bit nervous to be quite honest though. I mean, I'm not the classiest guy out there, but I want my prom date to have a good time. I'm a bit more on the shy side in terms of personality (in case you hadn't noticed) so accompanying a girl to a formal sort of thing like this, even just as friends, is kind of pushing it for me. I'm not the biggest into big parties/dances/big people gatherings either, so that's another stretch. I was kind of hoping that I wouldn't be asked this year, so I wouldn't have to deal with prom at all. Quite a few of my friends aren't going and I wouldn't mind just hanging out with them for a fun evening. Don't get me, wrong, I'm excited about going (as much as it sounds like I'm not). I'm sure it'll be fun. I just didn't really have a blog topic, so I picked this.

Proxy Sites

As much as proxy sites may seem like bad things, in terms of getting to blocked sites at school, they can be useful. For example, to write this blog from school, I had to use a proxy site. Without the skills of a very teck-savvy person somewhere in the world, this blog would be non-existent. I really wish I knew how to create that sort of website. My "website making" skills are zero. I know nothing about that topic, but it would be sweet if I did. The good thing about proxy sites is that they are always being created. Everyday there are tons of new ones that anyone can get ahold of. So even if teachers block the sites, the students simply keep finding new ones to go to and use.
In a sense, the teachers are fighting a very lost cause. On the other side though, if they weren't blocking any, there would be no cause at all. I don't know about you, but that would be a bit boring for me. If you could just go to any decent site without any "SonicWall" or some other firewall, I wouldn't feel really cool, sneaky, and rebelious when I go to blocked sites. Obviously there are sites that need to be blocked, but others are pretty innocent. I guess it really doesn't make that much of a difference to me either way, but I just thought I'd blog about this topic anyways.

Modern Technology

I really like modern technology. It makes life so much easier and more enjoyable sometimes. It makes impossible things possible. Earlier today I was on Facebook and I was looking for old friends and I know. I've already been able to find tons of people that I haven't seen for 6 or 7 years. It's amazing to see where they're all at now. Some of my best friends from elementary school now live in England, Italy, Japan, Australia, Kenya, Malaysia, and lots of other awesome places. Lots of them live all over the U.S. too. It's so cool to be able to find them and talk to them again. Without things like the internet, I'm pretty sure that that would be virtually impossible. Today I found my best friend from 1st and 2nd grade in Berlin. Guess where he's at now....Orlanda, Florida! I haven't talked to him since the last day of 2nd grade, when we said goodbye and now all I have to do is go to his wall and write "How's it going?" (or something like that). Personally I think that's awesome. Woohoo for modern technology!

Spring

Spring break is coming up in a week! I need a break from school, oofda! It seems like it's been going on forever. But after spring break we only have like 2 months left of school. I mean, yes it's still 2 whole months, but it's great when you put it in perspective of the entire school year. Plus I'll be in track for that time, so hopefully that'll be a way to pass the time faster. And then comes summer. I don't really wanna talk about summer right now actually. For one thing, it's a bit depressing and another thing, I like spring. Spring is my favorite time of the year. Everything is new and smells nice and there's no more snow. Once all the sand clears off the roads, the town looks beautiful again. Such a nice change compared to the yuckiness of winter. Of course, we'll probably still get some big snow storm halfway through April or something, but that's to be expected I guess. I'm looking forward to April all the same. I get to get my license in April! Yes, my driver's license. Yes, so I can drive a car. Yes, by myself. No, not so I can run people over and speed and fun stuff like that. Alrighty well this has been a pretty easy blog to write, now I better get on with my second one of the week.

Wrestling

I went to my first ever wrestling meet on Friday. It was the team semifinals in the state tournament. It was a neat experience and the Xcel Energy Center is really cool, but I wouldn't be upset at all is I was told I could never go again. I'm not that into wrestling...it's kind of a neat sport, but once you see one match, they all look farely similar. Not every single one is the same, some are pretty exciting actually. Overall though, it's not that big of a deal to me. Even though I don't necessarily find the sport super entertaining, I think it's awesome that our team is so good. This town definitely has somethinig to be proud of. It would be sweet to be the talk of the town, the town's favortie people. Although the huge amounts of favoratism are a bit "uebertrieben" or exaggerated. It kind of makes all the other sports feel inferior to the wrestling team. Of course there is a decent reason for that. The wrestling team works really hard and that work pays off. Whether you like the sport or not, our wrestling team deserves a lot respect (at least as far as athletics go).

Lent?

I guess it's that time of year again. It's Lent time. Now, I'm not Catholic, nor have I ever been, nor do I ever plan to be, so Lent doesn't really affect me the same way it affects Catholics. I think giving up something for 40 days is great idea, as long as it's with the right mind set. That's the problem with a lot of "religious" people. They have rules and regulations that should be followed, which isn't a terrible thing. The bad part about it is when the rules and regulations override the reasons behind them. I'm almost positive that if you went around our school and asked all the people that claim to be Catholic why they give up something for 40 days, almost all of them would say "To honor God." That's fine, it's a perfect church answer, it's what they've been taught to say...but if you were able to get them to tell you what they really think about Lent, it would probably be different. I bet the true answer from most students would be "Because I have to" or "Because my parents are making me do it."

I don't mean to be rippin' on Catholic kids, what I'm writing about is for everyone in general. I just used Lent as an example because people can relate to it. If you're gonna do something like give up something for 40 days in order to "Bring glory to God" don't lie about it. If you don't really care about doing it, then what's the point of doing it at all? Again, I'm not trying to attack anyone or anything in particular, I'm just trying get a bit of a point across.

Quackenbush Follow-Up

Well, I googled Quackenbush and got some info on the name. Thank goodness for modern technology huh? Yeah...Alright.

I bet you didn't know that almost all Quackenbush's living in the U.S. can be traced back to a Dutch immigrant name Pieter Quackenbosch who moved here in 1653. He was born in Oegstgeesst, Holland in 1614. The name Quackenbosch actually has a much different meaning that I thought it did. In Dutch, "bosch" means "forest." "Quacken" would be the sound a frog makes. I guess my guess about it meaning something about a duck was a bit off. But hey, give me a break, I don't speak Dutch. And no, it's not the same as German.

Quackenbush is the most common adaptation to the name in North America. Other variations include: Quackenbos, Quackenboss, Quakkelbosch, Quakenbush, Qualkinbush, and Kwakkenbos. So if you know someone by one of those names it would be safe to conclude that they are of Dutch decension. It would also be pretty safe to conclude that sometime in their childhood they got made fun of because of their name. By the way, if you ever meet someone with that name, please let me know because I want to meet them.

You know what...I was just doing some more research on the name and it said that "quacken" might actually have something to do with a duck. My self-esteem level just went from like -1 all the way to +5! I'm actually not sure how you would measuer that sort of thing, but it was more just to be used as an example.

That's that I guess. Quackenbush. Just to think that less than a week ago I was living my life without any knowledge of that name. My life is so much more complete now...

Quackenbush.

I was looking at this children's book on a shelf in my house and something caught my eye. The author's last name is Quackenbush. Now, I don't know for sure if that is the guy's real last name, but I'm pretty sure it is. If my last name were Quackenbush...I would definitely...um...well I'm not fully sure what I would do. I think I would write children's books. I guess that's not really that original of an idea is it? Oh well, I still think Quackenbush is an awesome name. How do you get a name like that anyways? I don't want the smart alek comment "you get it from your dad, duh." I mean how does that name start out? Quackenbush. I suppose maybe there was some guy that raised ducks and would let them live in bushes. Or maybe it was some duck hunter that was really good at shooting ducks from behind a bush. Maybe it has nothing to do with ducks at all. Maybe it comes from quaker, like quaker oats. Or like the quakers that came to the U.S. on the mayflower. Who knows!? I'm kind of curious now after writing this blog. I'm gonna look the name up and find out where it comes from. Quackenbush...I'll let you know what I find out in my next blog.

People not Property

I went to the movie "Taken" on Saturday night. I went into the movie thinking it would be a cool action movie with an awesome plot line. And it was, it was a fantastic movie in my opinion. But the thing that I got out of it wasn't just a cool way to disarm someone with a gun. I came away from that movie kind of pissed at people. Not all people, but certain stupid people whose lives are so screwed up and who have to just have screw up other people's lives as well. People involved with sex trafficking to be more specific.

I'd never really thought about this topic much before. I've "known" about it, but never really given it much attention. The movie really showed me how much of a terrible thing this is. Granted, the movie is based on someone's fictional ideas and thoughts about how to entertain other people, but there is a lot of truth to it. The "bad guys" in the movie treated women like they're nothing. Nothing but comfort "tools." How can you have so little respect of a human being, let alone a woman!? Girls were treated merely as a business, as way to get money. That's so wrong! We were talking about the Rape of Nanking a couple weeks ago in history class and it didn't exactly make sense to me. After seeing some of those situations that girls are put through in the movie it put it in a whole new light for me.

How can your mind become so twisted and sick!? You take a girl that you don't know, someone's daughter, someone's sister, maybe someone's girlfriend and you take possession of her, like an animal. You kidnap her and then force her to go through extremely undignifying things. I would like to ask the people that are in that sort of "business" if they would do that to their own sister or girlfriend or daughter. I really would.

Who Wants to Write a Story?

Public speaking isn't exactly my favorite thing in the world to do. Actually I have a somewhat strong dislike for. I wouldn't volunteer to do it, unless I have for some class and I just want to get it over with. It's kind of the same for writing. I'm not huge into writing things that tons of people can read. I mainly write for myself or for a small group of friends to read. So this blogging business is a bit of a stretch. But I figure as long as I have to do this, I might as well have a good time with it. So I think it's time for some audience participation...How about everybody that reads this blog adds a sentence to the comment "box"( I don't really know what it's called). We can make like a story from a bunch of peoples comments. I just thought that would be kind of neat to see if anyone will actually do this.

It's Sunday Again.

Hello there. Well I guess it's that time of the week again...Sunday. Time for everyone to squeeze in their two blogs for the week so that we keep our grades up in J10. It's kind of funny how everyone seems to do this weekly assignment at the last minute. You would think that it would only be the procrastinators that would do that. But wait, maybe we're all procrastinators. Maybe our parent's generation is right about our generation. Maybe all of their thoughts of us being lazy, and slackerish, and shallow are true. But, you know what, I don't really care right now. All I know is that I have my two blogs done for the week. I guess that's that.

Valentine

I have here a poem that I wrote in math class a couple years ago...pertaining to Valentine's Day (which, for those of you that don't know, is on the 14th of February every year. Yes, I was surprised that they have it on the same day every year too.) So I'll just let it be written out here, on the internet, so that everyone in the whole wide world can read it (everyone with access to the WorldWideWeb, that is). Here we go...hope you like it. Even if you don't like it, I'm gonna go ahead and write it out.

Valentine, Oh Valentine
I am yours and you are mine
No one can separate us,
Our love is divine.

Valentine, Oh sweet Valentine
We shall go to a forest of pine
On some lovely date,
Or go out to dine.

Valentine, Oh dear Valentine
Could this be a sign?
When you walk by me,
Your legs are so fine.

Valentine, My beloved Valentine
You are thin like a vine
Your silhouette is so lovely,
This none can deny.

Valentine, Oh tender Valentine
You are the only one for me
And as everyone can see,
We were meant to be.

*Dear reader, if I find out that you have plagiarized my poetry in any way without my consent (which is slightly redundant), I will personally find you and...ask you politely not to do that again.

Who makes up these words anyways?

I have in my hands at this moment, a "Dictionary of Contemporary English." I am about to open it to a random page and randomly point at a word and blog about it. Here I go...wish me luck....OUCH! IT GOT ME! RUN! RUN! Just kidding there. Don't worry I'm alright. Ok, here we go...Page 566..."inclined plane (noun)." (Definition: a flat sloping surface that meets the horizon at an angle which is less than a right angle)

Let's pull this definition apart to understand it a bit better alright?

First of all...flat. I think of pancakes when I think of flat.

Secondly...sloping. I think of mountains when I think of sloping.

Thirdly...surface. I think of drowning beneath the surface of water.

When I hear the word "meet," I think of a blind date (you don't meet your date until they show up).

Now on to "horizon." Of course, the first thing that pops to my mind is a car.

After hearing about cars, I think of wheelies when I hear angle.

Lastly, everyone knows that "less than a right angle" means less than 90 degrees, which isn't that much. Pretty lame for a wheelie if you ask me.

Ok, so we've taken apart the meaning of "inclined slope" so as to understand it better. Now let's see what we've learned.

Inclined Slope: "A drowning mountain of pancakes that is on a blind date. The date picks her up in a cool car and pops a wheelie. Unfortunately for the date, his wheelies are lame and so his date dumps him."

Inclined slope

Why would anyone ever want to use that term, it doesn't even make sense.

D o u b l e S p a c i n g ?

H o w w e l l d o y o u t h i n k y o u r m i n d c a n r e a d ? D o e s i t c o m p r e h e n d v e r y t r i c k y s t u f f o r d o e s i t j u s t s t i c k w i t h t h e r e m e d i a l s t u f f ? E v e r y o n e ' s d i f f e r e n t s o d o n ' t f e e l b a d i f y o u d o n ' t r e a d a s w e l l a s o t h e r s . O n e t h i n g t h a t I ' v e e n j o y e d d o i n g w i t h m y b l o g s t h i s y e a r s o f a r h a s b e e n w r i t i n g s o m e w h a t c o m p l i c a t e d b l o g s t o r e a d . F o r e x a m p l e , I ' v e w r i t t e n t h e m b a c k w a r d s , a s r u n - o n p a r a g r a p h s , a n d a f e w o t h e r s . N o w I t h o u g h t I w o u l d t r y w r i t i n g w i t h a s p a c e i n b e t w e e n e v e r y l e t t e r o r m a r k o f p u n c t u a t i o n . I s u p p o s e i t m i g h t j u s t a l l a p p e a r a s d o u b l e s p a c i n g t o m o s t p e o p l e ' s m i n d s , b u t I ' m c u r i o u s a s t o h o w e a s y t h i s i s t o r e a d . . .

super bowl

Ah yes, the super bowl. This huge event that happens once a year and that causes one of the biggest frenzies in our society. Of course football is fun to watch and play and it's a great thing to get in to, but it's not everything. When I hear people screaming during the last few minutes trying to "cheer their team on" I sort of chuckle to myself and think of the imprudence of it all. In five years will you really care who won Super Bowl XLIII? Probably not. The only chances of that happening are if you're a big fan of one of the teams, know someone personally related with the team, or were at the game. To me the most meaningful part of it all came after that game. The post-game talks with the players and coaches of the losing team interest me most. I really enjoy hearing what they've learned from the experience and how they've grown as a person because of it. Anyone can shout and hoot and hollor if you win, but it takes character to reflect and improve upon what you could have done better when you lose.

Honor Band

I enjoy playing instruments. One that I enjoy especially much is my trombone. I was given the fun opportunity to play trombone in an honor band this weekend. At first I thought it would be a really cool thing to do, like it was back in middle school. I had the music we were supposed to play about a month in advance, but I didn't bother to play it much ahead of time because it looked pretty easy. When we got to the school where the event was taking place and started playing, I realized that some of the songs were actually a bit tougher than I anticipated. They turned out alright in the end.

What really amused me about the experience was the amount of kids there that would have been qualified as "band geeks." I just wanted to go to have a good time and maybe learn something, a pretty laid back attitude. A lot of the kids there got really into playing, not that thats a bad thing, but they were like intensely into it. Not just the normal "Oh hey, I like band, this'll be fun!" Oh no, it was more like "Band! I need to practice my trumpet every second I'm awake! No time for anything else! Band!" No offense if you're like that, it's great, but it's not me.

Overall the day was pretty fun, I met some cool kids (including a very cute girl...well we didn't really meet, but I saw her and she smiled at me one time), learned some stuff about music, and had some great bonding time with my band director.

run-on

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iymowuasticlhaisng

He glances over from behind his computer. As soon as he notices my glare he quickly retreats to his screen. Appearing to be focused on his work, his disguise does indeed suit him well. His fair, blond hair and tall muscular body turns to the kid next to him and throws out a joke. His neighbor laughs, only instantaneously though. The world then resumes to its normal order of rotation and routine. The young man steals another quick peak over to my row. I detect his swiftness and catch his eye. Only a moment the gaze lingers, then his eyes are once again averted to his work. He mutters to himself...something inaudable, only known to himself...what a silly guy. He's watching me when I'm not looking. I'm watching him when he's not looking. Hey boy, you better watch out or I'll burn a hole through your computer with my lazer vision.

SDRAWKCABBACKWARDS

For my next blog (which I wrote backwards), you have to start reading at the bottom and work your way up reading right to left. This took about 30 minutes of my life away...

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