Oops, kinda disappeared there...

So, I said I was gonna post every single night, but obviously I didn't. I've been really busy with school and other life things, so I just forgot about this place for a while. I've got a new plan, though. What I'll do is write a new post every Friday morning, since I don't have class until 12:30. It'll have to be after class on Fridays second semester, however, because I have a class from 7:30 to 10:30 AM, which won't be the worst thing in the world. I've had a lot of things to write about that I should've put down here a while back but never really had the chance/time/motivation to do it, but now I'm gonna *try* to *make* myself write up more posts.

Anyway, for this one, I'm already just over half done with my first semester of college. Damn, that time went by fast. It feels like just yesterday was my first day. I remember after class I went outside and made my way over to my math class, and since I have an hour between Tech. Drafting and Tech. Math 2 on Wednesdays, I decided to sit on a picnic bench for about a half hour. I read some stuff in my Tech. Drafting book that was assigned, being as I had nothing else to do and it felt weird not rushing over to my next class in 5 minutes. That was 8 weeks ago, and shit did that go fast. The semester ends on December 16th, and it's October 17th today, so two months from today, I'll be a day done with first semester. O.O

My sister transferred to UW-Platteville for two years now. She's finishing up her Carroll degree this year and will be going through the final steps the next year. Last weekend was Platteville's homecoming stuff, and we saw her in the parade and at the game when the marching band did its field show. It was really impressive. Everyone was so awesomely in-sync and they looked really damn great. I don't know how many of you watch the show How I Met Your Mother, but there is one episode where Barney worries that he's not Ted's best friend. When Ted says "You're my best friend, Barney.", Barney gets happy and says "And, as your best friend, I'd like to play a little game I like to call 'Haaaaaaaave you met Ted?" and then Ted in response doesn't want to play it, but Barney is already in the works of getting Ted set up with a cute woman at the bar, in which he's forced to talk to her. That's the whole point of that game, to force a guy who can't always simply talk to a girl to talk to one without a choice, unless he wants to make it really awkward for himself. I mention this because my oldest sister's boyfriend was at the game with us, and there was (I'll be honest) a pretty cute girl in front of us with her family, and he first asked her what was the deal with some band members not wearing their uniforms. Then, about 5 seconds later, he said "Also, have you met James?" and from there I was chatting with her for about 30 seconds. Now that I think it over, I could've played it so much smoother than I did. I mean, I'm not saying I choked up and couldn't spit a "Hi." out, but I didn't say "Hey, I'm James.", I just said "How's it going?". And the only things we really "discussed" was who my older sister in the band was and that she (the girl I talked to), I guess, took a year off from school. Now, here's what I really should have done:

Me: "Hey, I'm James."
Girl: "Hi, I'm --her name--."
Me: "Nice to meet you."
Girl: "You too."
Me: "You part of the band?"
Girl:*her response*
Me: "Ah, nice. How long you been playing that?"
Girl: *her response*
Me: "Cool. That the only one or do you have alternates?"
Girl: *her response*
Me: "Sweet. What year are you here?"
Girl: *her response*
Me: "I see. How come you took a year off?"
Girl: *her response*
and blah blah blah...

See, that would've led to at least a 5-minute conversation. Building questions off of responses. I guess I'll remember that for next time. Now, I don't know if it was weird that I just wrote up a conversation of what should've been said or not, but it's there. Not like I have 50 followers here who comment on every single post.

Anyway, that'll be it for this post. Gotta get going soon for class. I will do my best to hit this place up again next Friday, roughly the same time. And that's all she wrote!

Hey hey hey, yo yo yo.

Well I sure haven't posted on here in a while. I'm gonna start getting back into the routine of posting on here every night. Yes, I said it. EVERY night. I won't make a new post and then become a ghost for the next 4 or 5 months, or however long it's been since I last posted. Anyway, there is sure a lot I could say right now, so why not talk about all of it. First of all, I have 4 days left. 4 days left of all that high school shit. Then I'm free for 2 1/2 months. I say 2 1/2 because I start college at WCTC on August 20th. Oh well. I start early, but I get an ass-load of time for Christmas break, and I finish school way earlier than I do in high school. Graduation is on the 8th, a week from today. And four glorious days left. 

So I got invited to this event called "Senior Prank Week" on Facebook, and a friend of mine who knows a shit-ton of people got a whole thing going on to ambush the underclassmen tomorrow with water guns after school lets out. He is making sure that everyone invited does it, or at least as many as possible. I was invited, but I won't be participating in it. I'm not lying to my boss about why I'd be late to work, and I also was not allowed to be part of it by my parents. Not that I care a whole lot, I'd just like to be there and watch it all go down. I'm sure someone will record it as it happens, so I'm pretty much already guaranteed a video to pop up on Facebook later that afternoon/evening. The main host of the event claims that his "'inside sources' have already discussed the plan with Rasmussen (our school resource officer) and he approved of it". Whatever, if they're lying about that, they're lying, and if they're not, well... they're not. I wish I could just watch from the main doors as people get sprayed, but I'll be long gone from the school and at work by the time it actually happens. I leave for work at 2:15 and school ends a half hour later. 

The fact that he's calling it "Senior Prank Week" says to me that he's planning multiple pranks for these last 4 days of high school, especially since he labeled this prank as "Prank 1". Part of me wants to suggest to him some stuff that I think would be pretty cool, but he'd probably say something like "No, that's just stupid." or "Um... yeah no one will go for that." I guess we'll see what happens with this water gun thing and see what plays out with the rest of whatever the heck he's planning. 

BYE.

Phones

So, for my 18th birthday, I purchased the Samsung Galaxy S3 on Straight Talk for $400. I had been deciding between that and the black iPhone 4S. Now, 3 months later, it has finally hit me that I really wish I had gotten the iPhone, for several reasons:

- I like simplicity. 

- I like organization. 

- I like an attractive phone (the S3 doesn't seem that appealing to me anymore, visually).

- I like iOS waaaay more than Android. 

- I like the feel of an iPhone. 

- I like the iPhone's display. 

- I love everything about the iPhone. 

When I was about to purchase the S3, I was turning into one of those Android users hating on iOS users. I regret ever doing that. I've come to discover that I really do prefer iOS over Android and I'm beginning to regret more and more, now, getting the S3. I would sell my S3 on eBay, but my mom doesn't think it's worth it for the reasons I told her about, most of which I mentioned above. My plan was to sell the phone for $300 on eBay, put the service back onto my old phone for a bit, order the iPhone 4S from Wal Mart and be a happy guy. Most of my family was against me doing this simply because of why I wanted to switch: I like iOS way more than Android, and I couldn't come up with a good reason to get another new and expensive ($450) phone. I understand what they mean when they don't want me getting a new phone, since that's roughly $800 that I'd be spending on phones. But really, it's not. If I was able to sell the S3 for $300 on eBay, I'd only have to take out $150 for the iPhone, which really isn't that much money. 

Most of the reason why I got the S3 was because my sister didn't want me getting the iPhone. She said she didn't want to see me paying full-price for a phone that is glass on the front and back and could crack at the slightest drop. She also doesn't want me getting something that's better than hers, whatever it may be. All I can say from this whole issue is this: I know to never let my sister's opinion change or alter my final decision at all. I could have easily gotten the iPhone 4S, but I let myself go her way too much. Gr...

High School Relationships

This topic dawned on me just a few minutes ago, while I was brushing my teeth, actually. It's a topic that lots of people have strong opinions on, and others just think of as "over-rated". Suddenly, I'm kind of agreeing with the people that say high school relationships are over-rated, because in a way, they are. Many of my friends that I made freshman year started dating not even 2 or 3 months into school. A few of those relationships are still going fairly strong to this day, but some have weakened to the point of friendships being ruined and people getting hatred towards each other, and I have been off in the distance seeing it all happen. 

A big reason I decided to blog about this was because two friends of mine that had started dating as freshman (and I think they literally started halfway through the first month of the school year) recently broke up. By recent I mean about 2 weeks before school started. I'm not exactly sure what the cause was for the break-up, but all I know is that the guy (I'm not mentioning any names for the sake of their own privacy) apparently was hanging with another girl (not his girlfriend... at the time) until 2 AM, and was calling his then-current girlfriend his ex-girlfriend even before they were officially broken up, so I don't know what the whole deal was there, but it obviously wasn't good. Now, those two are obviously done with each other, and I'm pretty sure both are starting up new relationships very soon (by very soon I mean they are hanging with other people of the opposite sex quite often). 

That is one reason why I not only think high school relationships are over-rated, but am glad that I won't be in one ever (a high school one, that is). The other reason is a general and very annoying one: any time something is not going well in the relationship, the girl thinks that everyone on Facebook needs to know about it. FYI, I don't give a shit about the fact that your man hasn't hung out with you for a week or that he's been "fooling around" with other girls. That's your own issue that doesn't need to enter the Internet, but it does anyway. 

I'm also glad that I'm not in a relationship right now simply because they are over-rated in high school. There's a very very very good chance that you don't meet that right person in high school (though I'm pretty sure I'm part of that small small percentage that did meet that right person). If you do, then you clearly weren't keeping your options opened and were afraid you'd meet someone better than your current significant other (again, not for me). Plus if you start a relationship in high school, you always create that risk of something going wrong and then you lose their friendship, and possibly other friendships because of whatever shit happened around you. Then there's the problem of being friends with people that aren't friends with other people that you're also friends with. There are several people I'm friends with that other friends of mine would never ever look in the face ever again. It's sad, but that's what high school does to some people. :(

Anywho, that's my take on high school relationships now, and how I view them. I don't expect my status to change at all this year, but hope that it does in 2 or 3 years with this one girl that I met real well junior year and still like her a lot to this day (she was a senior and is now off at basic training). I feel like she's the one. I just love everything about her. But yeah, that's my opinion on this topic and that's that. Byeeee!

Enlightening Yourself is a Great Feeling

Alright, it's nearly the end of summer, I'm starting my senior year of high school next week, and I haven't been doing jack squat lately. Last Friday I went to an optional Pep band event at my high school and got to hang out with some good old school friends of mine. It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it. On Sunday, I marched with my high school's band in the Richfield Day's parade, and it was hot as hell (just about). Then, on Monday I was back at the high school at 7 AM to play some Pep band tunes for the freshman at their orientation and pretty much show them what Pep band is like, and so they could learn the words to one of the songs we play called "We're Loyal to You Illinois", but the band refers to it as "School Song". Those were some busy 3 days, and they were a busy 3 days that I actually rather enjoyed. I mostly enjoyed them because I had finished up my summer AP Lit. homework, which consisted of reading two books, The Picture of Dorian Gray and To Kill a Mockingbird, and then typing up some enormously long book notes on them, and doing a mock timed writing on Dorian Gray. Those three assignments took up a heck of my time, but that's why they call it summer homework for an AP class, huh?

Anyways, those three days came and went, and now today was a really sluggish day for me. All I did was get up, shower, eat breakfast (at 11:00, so I ate lunch an hour later), brush my teeth, sit on the computer and watch Doctor Who, then bail a load of hay with my dad, sit back on my lazy ass and watch more Doctor Who and TV, and that was about it. I did not do a whole lot around the house until about an hour ago, which was cleaning out the dishes in the sink and filling the dishwasher up. My older sister was giving me a stern talk and said that I needed to get up and do something, and in my head I was strongly agreeing with her, but I couldn't bring myself to really say "Yeah, you're right, I need to do something now." All I could muster out was a little "...yeah..." while looking at the TV screen. After that little situation, I decided to go up to my room and put some clothes away that my mom had finished getting out of the dryer and folding up. I also made my bed and made everything look nice and tidy. I will also admit that my bedroom looks way too clean for an 18-year-old teenage guy. I should have clothes laying all over the floor, bed sheets messed up, papers and miscellaneous items everywhere... but I don't. My bed is usually nice and neat, and my room is generally a little too clean. But that's besides the point. I'll make my point now. Once I finished cleaning around my room, my mind finally clicked and reattached itself to my brain and I gave myself a little pep talk and "enlightened" myself (Ah, finally! I'm getting to the topic of this blog!). I walked back and forth and told myself several things that I hope to follow through with throughout the entire school year. It wasn't a talk where, yeah, I'll work on that for the first two weeks of school and then give up. No. I'm gonna get this going when school starts and keep it going through school and now, hopefully through summer.

You might be wondering (but most likely not) what I told myself I would do when school starts. I thought it through a while, and here is what I've decided:
- I will not be going on Facebook at all Monday - Friday, with a possibility of going on Friday nights, but probably not. Last school year I was on Facebook 75% of the time after I got home from school, and it caused me to not get done with homework some nights, which isn't ever a good thing for me.
- I am going to work out for a half hour every day after I get home from work at 5:30, so I'll get done with my work out at 6, and then do my homework. I will do things like use my shakeweight, do push-ups, ab crunches, possibly bike a bit, and just keep my fitness up since I'm not taking a gym class anymore. I was in FIT for Life last year in school, and that really helped me with my muscle and my health in general.
- In the event that I don't have any homework on any given day, I will force myself to go outside and play basketball or baseball, or just walk around the woods and find something to do. I will not sit in the house all evening long and watch TV and play games on my iPad. I may give an exception to watching an episode or two of Doctor Who if I deem it okay for myself, but otherwise nature and the outside world is my only other option, for real.
- I am going to cut back on the amount of those amazingly tasty fudge bars that I just looooove. Yeah, I can let a little humor into this blog, I'm not gonna be totally serious (I mean, I'm serious about what I'm talking about, but, you know what I mean :) ). If I get hungry, I'm going to look for something healthier to eat, like a hard-boiled egg, or some yogurt. An egg actually sounds tasty right now... I wonder if there's any in the fridge...
- I'm going to be in bed no later than 10:30 every night, with the obvious but usually unfortunate exception of being up late due to homework. I'm hoping that isn't the case this year, as I'm not taking any classes that have any chance of containing work or projects that I don't get done right away. I mean, come on, I'm taking Consumer Math, I'll pass that with flying colors!

So yeah, that's my plan for school this coming fall. I'm changing my ways and I want to keep it that way forever. Yes, that's a lot to ask of myself, but I'll do my best to enact during school. I start my new job tomorrow, so I'll need to get these changes going sooner rather than later, but no later than Tuesday, September 3rd (the first day of school)! I know I can do this, I have faith that I can change and make a difference in my life. It's gonna happen, no matter how hard I find it to be. Don't believe me? You just wait and see.

My "Dream/Fantasized" Life

I'm sure you've day-dreamed about your ideal/dream/fantasy life before, and when you finally snap back to reality, you get really sad that your dream life isn't anywhere close to your real life. Then you get all depressed and feel like crap. That's exactly what happened to me during an FFA meeting. I didn't need to talk a whole lot, I was just in listening to what was being said, until I started day-dreaming about my dream life. It had to be the most in-depth and detailed day dream that I've ever had, I was so zoned out. I don't remember a single thing that was talked about at the meeting, I was so into my dream. Anyway, my dream life consisted of me being much taller, around 6'4, way more attractive, having these cool glasses that lit up on the sides, and the part that sat on my nose would push out a small amount of glue onto my nose that would keep the glasses on my nose and would never fall down from sweat or anything. I also dreamed up that I would have a container sorta thing built into my bedroom wall that I would put my glasses into every night which would thoroughly clean them out over night and have them ready in the morning.

I would wear them the most, and wear my contacts very sparingly. I would also not have a cowlick like I do now, and I would have my hair sticking up in the front all the time. Also, I would be dating the girl of my dreams that I asked out earlier in the year but she said no to me - *sad face* - and I'd be really freaking smart. I'd also have a sweet room with a large flat-screen TV in it and an Xbox 360, and my house would be extremely clean and pretty much show off all of my OCD. I also would have very neat handwriting, a really nice computer, and just everything would be so kick-ass. I'd also be slightly more popular.

Just, let's say that every aspect of my life would be 10 times better than it is now. I would be dating an amazing girl, I'd be taller, more attractive, smarter, everything better. I'm sure everyone has had this kind of day-dream at one time or another in their life, I know I have.

Anyway, that's all for tonight. I'll have another much longer blog post coming soon... and it's about a friend of mine that I wish had a stronger relationship with me like she used to... I almost can't wait for this post. Is that bad?

:(

So my flash drive was stolen last Thursday. At least, that's the final conclusion I've come to. I was moving some files onto it for a class, but I never unplugged it from the computer after I was done. I'm really sad now and am realizing just how pissed off I am, because (1) I have to email myself everything I need for homework that needs to be transferred from school computers to my home computer and (2) I had an FFA PowerPoint on there that I was working on for the banquet this April. It leaves me with practically nothing. I really liked that flash drive. It was even 8 gigs, which is quite a lot of space. I'm angry at whoever took it. The only thing that confuses me, though, is the thought of it being stolen. No one is ever in the band room after school is over (except for those with after-school lessons). Ever. Ugh I'm so pissed.

And now I'm hearing a bunch of shit from my mom that I have to do on Saturday. Greeeat. Just great. I have to help with the chickens and clean the pens out. Blah blah blah blah. I'm done.

Oh yeah! I want this weekend to be over.

I miss first semester.

Second semester started last Tuesday, and I'll admit, I'm sad first semester is over. I really enjoyed a couple of my classes in first semester, which were Minorities and Prejudice and Focus on Careers. FoC (Focus on Careers) was only second quarter, Junior Health was first quarter (did not like that class). Minorities was a really easy class but the teacher was awesome. At the beginning of the year, he was really awkward and didn't seem to know how to handle the class and teach, but throughout the semester, he got much better. The class even said they were sad to be done with the class, myself included. He always did "Bad Joke Monday", and they were some pretty bad jokes. The last one of the second last day of the semester, however, wasn't really that bad of a joke. It actually made some sense and was kinda funny. I ended up with a straight A in the class, so that was nice. I got 5 A's, a B- and a C- for first semester, but the class with the B- was an AP class, so technically I got 5 A's, an A- and a C-. According to me and my technicalities, my GPA came out to be 3.7, which is AWESOME.

For second semester, I now have Modern American History first hour and PE III: Fit for Life sixth hour. I'm excited about PE III because I want to get more fit and get more muscle, and this class will definitely guarantee that, as long as I try my hardest.That's about all I have to say. Bai.

It will never happen (at least, not now). :'(

So, the girl that I really like and have blogged about several times talking about how I am gonna ask her out and all... it's not gonna happen. I asked her out on Christmas morning, and she said no. The first thing she did say, however, was "I really really wanna say yes." Her two reasons for saying no were because she's going off to the army next year, and her past relationships haven't gone so well, especially her most recent one that I think ended towards the end of this past summer. It sort of pisses me off, too, thinking that if her last relationship hadn't gone so badly, I feel like she may have said yes. But because she is going to the army, I feel like that would've over-ruled the other reason. I see why she said no because of that, as we wouldn't see each other at all really during the school year, but I honestly wouldn't care if it wouldn't work out for us after that, and just during the school year would be plenty for me. I've never had a girlfriend before, and after meeting this girl, I just want that sense of feeling cared about almost more than my own family by another girl.

This girl, every time I see her, or every time I know I'm about to see her, like when I'm driving to school or to her house to hang out, I get really excited and can't wait to say hi and chat. Today was my dad's side's Christmas party, and we do this thing called "White Elephant" where everyone 16+ brings in some kind of either funny, nice or somewhat-shitty gift in to be opened by someone else, and the gifts can also be stolen by other participants up to 3 times. I played in it, and I ended up getting Trouble with the Curve and a box of popcorn. I couldn't  have been happier, as I was dead sure that my friend, this girl, that I really really like, would no doubt ask me to come to her house so she and her family could watch it with me. I was waiting for that text asking me, and about 3/4 of the way through the Packer game, she texted me asking if I would like to come over after the game and watch the movie with them. I obviously said sure, but I knew no "cuddling" or sitting close to each other was gonna happen.

I asked her out, she said no, and now I think she's just trying to keep her distance from me slightly so she doesn't get me thinking maybe she changed her mind. Before I had asked her, any time I went to her house, she would end up sitting real close next to me, and it was great, but now, like tonight, we both ended up sitting on opposite ends of the couch. I think, however, that she was just so tired from the long ride home from Minnesota that she just wanted to rest, which I understood. I just texted her then, haha.

Anyway, I should probably get to bed, as it's almost 1:10 AM, and I haven't gotten to bed earlier than midnight this whole break, and I don't think I'll be doing that until Tuesday night, which is a school night. :( Meh... I'm kinda sad that break is almost over already. Oh well. :\

Christmas break!

I got an early start to my Christmas break this year. You're probably thinking "Wow! That's awesome!". To be honest, it wasn't all that awesome. I was okay with having Thursday off, but I wanted school to be in session on Friday, as I had several tests to take care of on Friday, and since we had off of school due to a huge snow storm Thursday and Friday, those tests now have to wait until after break... which won't be easy to do. For one, I'm not gonna study for those tests all over break, and it's gonna be hard as hell to do anything about them before break is over. Not only does it suck that school was cancelled and I have to wait on those tests now, but I have been EXTREMELY BORED this entire time. I studied for one of my tests that wasn't so bad, so I'm already finished with most of my homework, and the only other order of business for me is finishing up my AP Lang. "This I Believe" paper, which I don't want to do right now. So, as you can assume, I'm so bored every day. I have nothing to do. Absolutely nothing. I get up, eat breakfast, shower, go on my iPad, play some games, watch TV, and sit there. Almost all day long. I HATE IT. I wish I could hang out with some friends, but none of that can really happen until after break is over.

Due to my extreme boredom, I'm nearly ODing on my technology use. Because of the two snow days and break, I've gone on my iPad and laptop more than usual, and done nothing more than usual. I feel so lazy and so unaccomplished lately. Yeah, there's my bed to make and the house to clean, but that's really boring and is just not fun at all (like cleaning your room should be fun to begin with). I have had no life these past 3 days. And this post is here for me to rant on and on about it to the world.

So, as you know, the world was supposed to "end" last Friday, December 21st, but it clearly didn't, and I knew it wouldn't. Many people on the Internet were freaking out about it, asking if it was real or not and what was going to happen and what they should do about it, and I said on literally every one of the posts "The world isn't ending any time soon. If it was gonna end on tomorrow (this time being Thursday) from being hit by a meteor or other planet or something, you would've seen a huge ball in the sky for the past month or so. News agencies would've been freaking out about it, and NASA would've been tracking it's ass for months." Yeah, the world ain't ending any time soon folks. Trust me, I'm a person. That made no sense, but whatever. It's not the end of the world, haha.

I'd make another paragraph here, but I'm really tired, and I just wanna get to bed somewhat early tonight. I went to bed at almost 1 AM last night, and nearly 3 AM on Friday night, as I was at a friend's house, and I ended up being there till about 2:30 watching Magic Mike, and I regret doing that. It was the worst movie I've ever seen. I don't care to watch 5 men stripping and dancing in extremely sexual ways. It's disturbing and really really awkward. Look at that, I typed a paragraph. Good. 'Night!