YOU SAID TO DO IT MANDY YOU BETTER ANSWER THEM.

01) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
02) What was your dream growing up?
03) What talent do you wish you had?
04) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
05) Favorite vegetable?
06) What was the last book you read?
07) What zodiac sign are you?
08) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
09) Worst Habit?
10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
11) What is your favorite sport?
12) Do you have a Pessimistic or Optimistic attitude?
13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
16) Do you have any pets?
17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
18) What was your first impression of me?
19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22) What color eyes do you have?
23) Ever been arrested?
24) Bottle or can soda?
25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
27) What's your favorite place to hang out at?
28) Do you believe in ghosts?
29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30) Do you swear a lot?
31) Biggest pet peeve?
32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
34) Favourite and least favourite food?
35) Do you believe in God?
36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

Today was a moderately interesting day.

The first thing of interest happened when I was riding my bike to school. I was biking down a sidewalk that's on a slope, and I was nearing a bus stop. As I approached it, the bus came and picked up the two people who were waiting at the stop. This was all well and good, until I was about alongside the bus, and then THIS GUY STEPPED OFF OF THE BUS AND DIRECTLY INTO THE PATH OF MY BIKE. I hit the break, but it didn't do much immediately because I was going downhill and I had too much momentum going. Luckily, the guy managed to put both his hands on my handlebars and stop me with his sheer manliness, so I only hit him a little, and he was fine.

I got to school, had English, and then came my second period class, which is U.S. History. We were only in class for about 30 minutes, however, because class was interrupted for an assembly, something about drunk driving. I decided that I could be trusted to not drive drunkenly and therefore did not go to the assembly. Instead, Travis and I walked to the John Brooks. I bought a breakfast burrito. Travis wanted a sandwich, but when he could not find one he liked, he decided to buy a loaf of bread. And not, like, sliced bread either, but French bread. He just bought a whole loaf of French bread. I found this amusing, but what I found more amusing was that he just opened the foil wrapper and ate the loaf of bread like it was a hot dog. That cracked me up for some reason. Then we each bought a Vault at the dollar store, and then went across the street to the laundromat and played Donkey Kong Junior. Then we just sat for a while and talked before going back to school when the assembly ended and lunch started.

After lunch I had Painting & Drawing, which I have with my friend Ben. Ben has a friend named Alonzo, who's an interesting guy and with whom I am friendly. Alonzo came into our class despite the fact that he does not have the class. He had with him a rubber band ball, which he referred to as his mind, the rubber bands being thoughts. He was bouncing the rubber ball back and forth between him and Sima, the girl who sits behind me. I got up to get some paint, and asked Alonzo to pass me the ball. Instead he passed it to Sima, and I asked her to pass it to me. Now, I said "bounce it to me", but Sima either didn't hear this or didn't care, because instead she wound up and fired the ball at me and hit me square in the nose, for which I was not prepared. And she can fucking throw, so it hurt. My nose bled and everything. But I was okay. Later, Ben, Alonzo, and I went outside and played wall ball with the rubber band ball, and then we played craps using pennies and these big foam dice that Alonzo got at the assembly. Then Sima came outside, and the four of us talked (though I didn't really talk that much) for a while. Then I looked at the nearby baseball field and found a frisbee lying on the field, which I picked up, and we threw it around for a little bit. I passed it to Sima, and she was going to pass it to me, but she didn't want to throw it while Ben and Alonzo were watching because she hadn't thrown a frisbee for a while and she didn't want to be embarrassed. They refused to look away, so I ran behind the building where she could throw it to me and where they wouldn't see. It turns out that she really couldn't throw a frisbee well, but she looked very cute doing it.

Then the bell rang and I went to Photography, then the day ended. I was biking home, and I was passing a ditch bank, and someone was sitting next to the ditch bank. I didn't notice him until he called out my name. I looked back, but I was too far away at that point to make him out very well, and I wasn't sure who he was. So I just said "Hey", and continued on. I think it may have been Jake Wright, who was one of my best friends in elementary school, but he went to a different middle and high school, and I haven't seen him in five years or more. It sort of looked like Jake, but I'm not sure.

Thus was my day.

Basics

Your favorite genre(s) of music?: Alternative Rock, I guess.
Favorite band(s)?: Uh... R.E.M... uh... I dunno...
Favorite singer(s)?: Beck first and foremost.
Favorite song(s)?: Where It's At by Beck and Man On The Moon by R.E.M. Look how nice that worked out!

Music Through the Decades.

In your opinion, what was the best recent decade for music?: I like '90's music the best.
Some of your favorite bands to come of that time period?: Uh... Beck and R.E.M. again.
Some of your favorite songs to come of that time period?: Same as the above two, plus A Long December by Counting Crows, Everyday is a Winding Road by Sheryl Crow, Loser by Beck and many others.
Were you alive or able to comprehend music at that time?: I was alive, and I could sort of comprehend music.
What was the worst decade for music and why?: I really don't know.

Music and Your Moods

Do you find that you can alter your mood by listening to music?: Yeah, sometimes.
Why or why not?: Well, I can't change my mood that drastically, but certain songs can lift my spirits or pump me up or make me sad or make me feel infinite.
What are a few songs that you listen to when you're sad?: Into The Ocean by Blue October.
Happy?: Where It's At again.
Absolutely heartbroken?: Into The Ocean still applies, and A Long December works, too.
Excited?: Uh, I don't know... It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by R.E.M. maybe.
Angry?: I can't thing of anything.
Nervous?: I dunno.
Apathetic?: Loser works fairly well.
Calm?: Man On The Moon or Beautiful World by Colin Hay

Music in Certain Situations and on Special Occassions

Are there any songs that you associate with the rain?: Into The Ocean again.
Snow (not Christmas music)?: Not really.
Your daily commute?: When I used to walk to school in the morning, I listened to Where It's At and Take It Easy by The Eagles a lot... so those I guess.
A current boyfriend/girlfriend or crush?: I don't have a girlfriend or any crushes, really.
An ex-boyfriend/girlfriend?: They'll Need A Crane by They Might Be Giants.
Sunny weather?: The Where It's At music video starts with a sunrise...
Christmas?: Nothing, really.
Halloween?: Nope.
A very low point in your life?: Man On The Moon maybe, depending on what one considers a low point.
A very high point in your life?: I'm not sure.
Your best friend?: Not really, One Week by Barenaked Ladies if anything.
Your most hated enemy?: Not sure.
Your parents?: Walk On by U2 always reminds me of my dad.
Siblings (if you have any)?: I don't have any.
Being alone?: Easy Tonight by Five For Fighting, maybe.
The early morning?: Again, Where It's At and Take It Easy.
The afternoon?: I'm not sure.
The evening?: I dunno...
Night-time?: Man On The Moon
Somebody that you always wanted but couldn't have?: I dunno.
Any other situations that you associate with music?: I associate my trip to Australia with Wish You Well by Bernard Fanning, I associate Loser with my seventeenth birthday and my trip to Washington D.C., I associate Man On The Moon with too many things to count, the list goes on.

Song Lyrics

Your favorite song lyrics of all time?: Oh jeez, I have no idea, there's to many."Let's play Twister, let's play Risk" from Man On The Moon comes to mind.
Your favorite song lyrics of the moment?: "Now I leave the party early, at least with no regrets" from Beautiful World by Colin Hay.
Your favorite sad song lyrics?: "I want to swim away but don't know how, sometimes it feels just like I'm falling in the ocean. Let the waves come take me down, let the hurricane set in motion, yeah. Let the rain of what I feel right now come down, let the rain come down" - Into The Ocean, Blue October
Your favorite happy song lyrics?: Probably the first verse of Where It's At
Your favorite angry (or otherwise unbalanced) song lyrics?: I dunno, I really don't have that much angry music.
A song lyric that made you cry?: Walk On usually makes me cry.
A song lyric that made you laugh?: I can't think of one off the top of my head. "I'm pushing an elephant up the stairs" from The Great Beyond by R.E.M. (another song I really like) makes my friend Kenneth laugh.
A song lyric that made you want to start a fistfight?: I dunno...
A song lyric that you secretly dedicate to an ex?: The chorus of They'll Need A Crane.
A song lyric that you secretly dedicate to an enemy?: I don't really have any enemies...
A song lyric that you secretly dedicate to a lover or love interest?: Eh.
A song lyric that describes your life?: Let's play Twister, let's play Risk again... Ooh, and "Fallen on a termite, it's choking on the splinters" from Loser.
A song lyric that describes you?: "Who would ever notice you? You fade into a shaded room" - Nobody's Fault But My Own by Beck
A song lyric that is so bad that you think it never should've been written?: I don't know...

Your Musical History

Have you ever performed music?: I used to write little songs back in elementary and middle school and sing them sometimes, but that's it.
Are you a good singer?: Nope.
Do you formally know anything about music?: Not unless recorder counts, and even then I only know like two songs.
What was your favorite band when you were 10?: It was probably Baha Men... y'know, 'cause they had that... one song...
When you were 15?: They Might Be Giants.
Would your 9-year-old self like the music you listen to now?: He'd like a few songs.
How about your 15-year-old-self?: Probably sort of.
Do you still like that song?: Huh?
What/who influenced your musical taste?: My parents and my friends, both online and IRL.
Are there any bands that you're ashamed that you liked as a kid?: The aforementioned Baha Men... no wait, never mind, they KICKED ASS.
Any bands that you're glad you liked as a kid?: I dunno.
Do you come from a musically inclined family?: My dad has a near-encyclopedic knowledge of popular music in his brain.
In general, are you musically inclined yourself?: Not really even a little.

Music Ownership

What is the most common genre in your CD collection?: My CD collection is tiny, but it'd be alternative.
What is the best album you own?: Odelay.
What is the worst album you own?: I dunno, maybe "Middle Of Nowhere" by Hanson.
Do you purchase music legally or do you download it illegally?: I purchase almost all of my music legally. If I can't find something on iTunes, I might download it illegally.
Do you think that illegal downloading is a crime?: Isn't it?
How many CDs do you own (as in, physical CDs)?: Less than twenty...
How many albums do you own (including MP3 files)?: Still less than twenty.
Do you sell your music after you get tired of it?: I might put it on a trading site.
Go to your iTunes [Winamp] library and put it on random.
First song that comes up?: Older - They Might Be Giants.
Second song that comes up?: Cold Brains - Beck.
Third song that comes up?: Why Does The Sun Shine? - They Might Be Giants.
Do you think that these three songs represent your library well?: Sort of.

Your Listening Habits

Where do you listen to music the most?: School.
Do you listen to music on your daily commute?: Occasionally.
While you're online?: Sometimes.
While you're hanging out at home?: Rarely.
In the shower? If not, do you sing?: I don't listen to music in the shower, but I might sing softly sometimes.
While studying and/or reading?: Sometimes.
Writing?: Sometimes.
Exercising?: I don't exercise enough.
What is your favorite memory involving music?: Probably listening to Man On The Moon in my grandmother's house just before and after her death. Well, that's my most memorable memory, but it might not be my favorite. The Beck concert might be my favorite.
Least favorite memory?: I'm not sure.
Do you actively seek new music out?: No.
Do you steal music from your buddies?: Kenneth and Travis burn me music sometimes.
Do you regularly go to concerts/performances?: I've only been to three concerts.
What was the most memorable and/or best performance?: Beck, obviously. The other two were Weird Al and KISS.
Ever listened to music while you should've been doing something else?: Yeah, sure.
Ever been in trouble for the music you listen to?: Not really, actually.
Do you tell people about new bands?: If I'm really into them.

Today's Music

Do you particularly like music that's popular today?: Not that much.
Favorite new band/artist?: I really can't think of anyone.
Least favorite new band/artist?: I can't think of one specifically.
Favorite popular song (ie--you've heard it on a hits FM radio station)?: I liked "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T's when it was popular some months back.
Are there any undiscovered bands that you hope will become popular?: I can't think of any.
Do you actively listen to new music or are you stuck in the past?: I'm stuck in the past, I guess.

Oldies

Do you listen to oldies?: Rarely.
Why or why not?: I'm not familiar with that much of it.
Your favorite pre-1990's band?: R.E.M.
Favorite pre-1990's song?: It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by R.E.M.
Do you like music of the 80's?: Some of it, I guess...
70's?: I haven't heard that much.
60's?: Uh.
50's/40's?: Uhh...
Do you own/listen to any albums that predate 1985?: No, actually. Well, I guess that NFL Films soundtrack.
What kind of music did your parents listen to when they were your age?: My dad was into lots of rock like Led Zepplin and stuff. My mom, I'm not sure.
Do they listen to the same music now?: Yeah, pretty much actually.
Do you know anything about your grandparents' tastes in music?: My grandma liked Sheryl Crow...

The Final Questions

Do you like telling people about your favorite music?: Sort of.
Do you like sharing new music with people?: Yes and no. I like showing it to them, but then I'm afraid they won't like it.
Are you a member of any musical-based websites or forums?: Nope.
Are you a full-album kind of person or singles & hits kind of person?: Singles, although I'm kind of sporadic.
What is the strangest thing you listen to?: I'm not sure.
The most typical thing you listen to?: Do you mean what do I most typically listen to or what do I listen to that's most typical? Beck for the first one, and I guess U2 for the second.
Would you say that your musical taste falls in with other people your age?: Not really, but that's okay.
What does your music say about you?: That I'm me.

A is for All I Want Is You by Barry Louis Polisar
If I was a flower growing wild and free
All I'd want is you to be my sweet honeybee
And if I was a tree growing tall and green
All I'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves

B is for Beautiful World by Colin Hay
And still this emptiness persists
Perhaps this is as good as it gets
When you've given up the drink
And those nasty cigarettes
Now I leave the party early
At least with no regrets
I watch the sun as it comes up
I watch it as it sets
Yeah, this is as good as it gets

C is for Closing Time by Semisonic
Closing time, open all the doors and let you out into the world
Closing time, turn all of the lights on over every boy and every girl
Closing time, one last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer
Closing time, you don't have to go home but you can't stay here

D is for Devil's Haircut by Beck
Love machines on the sympathy crutches
Discount orgies on the dropout buses
Hitching a ride with the bleeding noses
Coming to town with the briefcase blues

E is for Easy Tonight by Five for Fighting
Shotgun fire, anybody home
I got two dimes in the telephone, all right
But it's not easy tonight

F is for Frontier Psychiatrist by The Avalanches
That boy needs therapy, psychosomatic
That boy needs therapy, purely psychosomatic
That boy needs therapy
Lie down on the couch! What does that mean?
You're a nut! You're crazy in the coconut!
What does that mean? That boy needs therapy

G is for The Great Beyond by R.E.M.
I'm breaking through
I'm bending spoons
I'm keeping flowers in full bloom
I'm looking for answers from the great beyond

H is for Hell Yes by Beck
Perfunctory idols rewriting their bibles
With magic markers running out of their ink
Lives in white out
Turn the lights out
Fax machine anthems, get your damn hands up

I is for Into the Ocean by Blue October
I want to swim away but don't know how
Sometimes it feels just like I'm falling in the ocean
Let the waves come take me down
Let the hurricane set in motion, yeah
Let the rain of what I feel right now come down
Let the rain come down

J is for Jack-Ass by Beck
I've been drifting along in the same stale shoes
Loose ends tying a noose in the back of my mind
If you thought that you were making your way
To where the puzzles and pagans lay
Then put it together
It's a strange invitation

L is for Loser by Beck
You can’t write if you can’t relate
Trade the cash for the beef for the body for the hate
And my time is a piece of wax
Fallen on a termite
It's choking on the splinters

M is for Man On The Moon by R.E.M.
Mott the Hoople and the Game of Life, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Monopoly, twenty-one, checkers and chess, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Let's play Twister, let's play Risk, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I'll see you in heaven if you make the list, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

N is for Nobody's Fault But My Own by Beck
Who would ever notice you?
You fade into a shaded room
It's such a selfish way to lose
The way you lose these wasted blues
These wasted blues
Tell me that it's nobody's fault, nobody's fault but my own

O is for One Headlight by The Wallflowers
Well, this place is old
It feels just like a beat-up truck
I turn the engine, but the engine doesn't turn
Well, it smells of cheap wine and cigarettes
This place is always such a mess
Sometimes I think I'd like to watch it burn

P is for Particle Man by They Might Be Giants
Particle Man, Particle Man
Doing the things a particle can
What's he like? It's not important
Particle Man

Q is for Que Onda Guero by Beck
See the vegetable man in the vegetable van
With the horn that's honking like a mariachi band
In the middle of the street people gather around
Put the dollar-dollar-dollar in the can
Ay wey! Que onda?

R is for Readymade by Beck
An open road where I can breathe
Where the lowest low is calling to me
I can pull myself back up, back down
Stuck together like a readymade

S is for Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of by U2
And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if your ways should falter
Along the stony pass
It's just a moment, this time will pass

T is for Torn by Natalie Imbruglia
Nothing's fine, I'm torn
I'm all out of faith
This is how I feel
I'm cold and I am shamed
Lying naked on the floor

U is for Under The Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner
Sometimes I feel like my only friend
Is the city I live in, the city of angels
Lonely as I am, together we cry

V is for Vertigo by U2
The night is full of holes
As bullets rip the sky of ink with gold
They twinkle as the boys play rock and roll
They know that they can’t dance, at least they know

W is for Where It's At by Beck
There's a destination a little up the road
From the habitations and the towns we know
A place we saw, the lights turned low
The jigsaw jazz and the get-fresh flow
Pulling out jives and jamboree handouts
Two turntables and a microphone
Bottles and cans and just clap your hands and just clap your hands

Y is for Your Racist Friend by They Might Be Giants
This is where the party ends
I can't stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
And your racist friend

I haven't really written anything here for over three months. The reason for that is that in the entirety of 2008, I wrote a letter to Mandy, and I didn't want the letter to be filled with things she had already read here. But now the letter's over, and so I can start updating this thing again! Not that anyone will read it, but still.

Anyway, I'm gonna do this survey thing about 2008.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Write a year-long letter. Sing the Mighty Mouse theme song. Visit a bunch of new states. I dunno...

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I'm not sure I've ever made a New Years' resolution.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not that I'm aware of.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My grandmother died at the very end of 2007, but no one I know died this year.

5. What countries did you visit?
Canada (for the first time)!

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
I'm not sure, I can think of a bunch of small material things, but nothing important, save some Andy Kaufman stuff.

7. What date(s) from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
The days I spent in my grandmother's house after she died, my birthday, and the Beck concert I attended.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
The letter.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Probably also the letter.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing serious.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I can think of a lot of great things I got, but most of them were gifts or things I traded for. I can't think of anything really great that I bought. The best thing I got was Odelay.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My dad, for following his dream.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
My "friend" Ben.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Soda, as always.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2008?
"Man On The Moon" by R.E.M., and to a lesser extent "A Long December" by Counting Crows.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. Happier or sadder?
Just a little happier, but it might be a draw.

ii. Thinner or fatter?
Probably a little fatter.

iii. richer or poorer?
Probably a little poorer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Writing, and my homework.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Moping.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent it staying up 24 hours straight, drinking soda, opening presents, watching TV, and so on.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
I thought I did, but I don't think so.

22. Did you get your heart broken in 2008?
Maybe just a little.

23. How many one-night stands?
None.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Seinfeld, probably.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Maybe my hate for some people has grown this year.

26. What was the best book you read?
Paper Towns, Lost in the Funhouse, or The Huey Williams Story.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Beck.

28. What did you want and get?
Lots of Beck albums and Andy Kaufman related things, and SBCG4AP.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Man on the Moon, I think. Phantom of the Paradise was good too. For movies that came out this year specifically, probably WALL-E.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I had my four friends over, and we went bowling and Putt-Putting. Then I felt like a complete loser.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
UNDERWEAR GOES ON THE INSIDE OF THE PANTS.

34. What kept you sane?
Weekends, I think.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Andy Kaufman. Beck if it has to be someone living.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I don't pay attention to politics. >_>

37. Who did you miss?
My grandmother and my dad.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Probably my Creative Writing teacher, Mr. Callison.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
Never underestimate the principle of the follow through.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"Oh no, I've said too much, I haven't said enough."

This weekend, my parents went out of town to Santa Fe for the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Festival. I was left home alone to watch the house. To occupy myself, I saved watching the 200th Strong Bad Email until this weekend.

However, I first am watching all 199 Strong Bad Emails in order! I'm currently on 134. I was also hoping to buy the second episode of SBCG4AP this weekend, but first I want to beat the first episode 100% of the way through, and I still need to find two Teen Girl Squad cards and three pages of the Snake Boxer 5 manual. I don't think I'm going to find them any time soon, so I'll probably buy episode two later.

Today I also went over to Ben's house. I went over at about 2:00, and we played some Mario Kart before we went to the Redi-Mart. On our way there, we ran into our friend Andrew. The three of us went to the Redi-Mart, and then went back to Ben's house and played more video games. Andrew had to leave, but soon Kenneth came over. Kenneth and Ben had to write an essay about Australia for their Spanish class, so I helped them with that. Then we played EVEN MORE VIDEO GAMES, then some basketball, and then Kenneth and I left.

As we walked home, we both drank a Dr. Pepper and talked about things. Mostly, Kenneth shared his views on religion. Kenneth was raised Catholic, but he's rejected it recently. Even though there wasn't anything particularly great about it, something about standing there in the dark, just talking, felt special. Kenneth, at one point, said he was sorry for taking up my time. I told him not to worry about it, and said that it was awesome and that I would write about it on my Live Journal.

And so I did.

About a month ago, I was talking to my art teacher, Mr. Abeita (one of my favorite teachers and an all-around cool guy). He's a Beck fan, and he told me that he was going to go to the Beck concert here in Albuquerque in September. I thought this was cool, but I didn't really get into Beck until a few days after that, so I forgot about it.

Fast forward to tomorrow, I was sitting at the table in the morning, eating my breakfast while my dad was watching the news. I wasn't really paying attention, but I happened to hear the anchor say "...And Beck will be playing tonight at the Kiva Auditorium! If you want tickets, they're still available.". Or something like that. The difference between when Mr. Abeita told me and now is that now I've heard five Beck albums and have been addicted to him for about a month now. Therefore, I thought that the idea of Beck being here in Albuquerque and having a concert was much more awesome than I did then. Still, I didn't think I was going to go to it or anything. I mean, it was a school night, I had no money, and no adult to to with. The idea was preposterous. Heh heh.

Heh.

When I got to school, I went to my first class, which was English. There I met Kenneth, who's also a big Beck fan. I brought up the topic of the concert, and he wasn't aware there was one. He asked me if I wanted to go, and I said I did, but that there was no way that I could. Later on, we were talking about it a little more, and Kenneth said that he'd like to go, too, which I expected. Kenneth has his license and a car, so he could get us there, but I still didn't think there was any way I could go. I told him that I didn't have ticket money, that my parents wouldn't let me go without one of them there or some adult, and that even if they'd let me do that, they wouldn't let me go on a school night. Kenneth said that he'd be willing to loan me the money for a ticket. Normally I hate borrowing large sums of money from people, especially one this large. However, for something like this, that may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I decided to go for it. That took care of the money issue, but I still had to get permission from my parents.

After English I went to U.S. History, and I decided that if we got to go to the concert and I had to be in debt to Kenneth, I wanted the debt to be as small as possible. So I pulled my baseball cap out of my backpack, and started holding it out and asking people for generous contributions to help my friend and I get to a concert tonight. And I actually got a good amount of money, $10.60. Nowhere near enough for a concert ticket, but still more than I thought I would get. And you know what, I think it was because I used the hat that I got that much money. If I had just held out my hands, people would have balked, but something about having a hat to put the money in made it fun for them.

At lunch, I decided I should call my parents and ask them for their permission. Now, I thought for sure they were going to shoot me down for several reasons. That it's a school night, that two teenagers going to a concert is irresponsible, that Kenneth would crash the car, that my grades aren't good enough, that I'd get raped on the way home, any of those. I called my mom, told her my request, and she told me to hold on while she discussed it with my dad. I heard mumbling in the background, keeping my fingers crossed mentally. Then my mom came back on and was like "Sure!" and I was all ":O", and then I was all ":D". True story.

So after that I went back into the cafeteria, told Kenneth the good news, and we high fived. Our plan was then to go into the media center and get on one of the computers and see if there were tickets left. We knew there were few tickets left to begin with, and if we wanted them we had to get them as soon as possible. So we got to the media center, and we had to go to the woman at the desk to get a mouse for the computer.

ME: Hi, can I get a mouse please?
MEDIA CENTER LADY: And what schoolwork are you working on?
ME: *deer in the headlights*
MOUSE: *just hanging there, inches from my hand*
MEDIA CENTER LADY: *skeptical look*
ME:...Nothing, really.
MEDIA CENTER LADY: *pulls mouse away, shakes head*

So then Kenneth and I had to go to our respective classes. My last class of the day was Photography, and Mr. Abeita let me use his computer. I went to Ticket Master, and there were still tickets left! Problem is, I needed a credit card, which I did not have. I called Kenneth, and we decided to just rush to his house after school and hope they were still there. During Photography, I talked to Mr. Abeita about the concert, and told him that Kenneth and I were hoping to go. He told me about previous Beck concerts he went to, including one where they had a puppet show mimicking everything that was going on on stage.

When school ended, I met up with Kenneth and we went to his house. When we got there, the first thing I did was check online to see if they still had tickets.

They didn't.

I was really disappointed. I thought that that was the end of it. The website didn't say there weren't any tickets left, just that they weren't available online anymore. Still, I thought that was just their way of telling you it was sold out. Still, Kenneth and I didn't want to give up that easily, so after Kenneth set up everything with his parents, we got in his car and left.

First we stopped at my house, and I picked up a few things and got directions to Kiva Auditorium from my dad. Then Kenneth had to get gas, so I told him to go to the one down Griegos, which was on our way anyway. So Kenneth pulled up to the pump. Problem is he didn't remember which side the tank was on. We looked, and it was on my side, which was the wrong side for where he was. So then Kenneth pulled out of that spot, turned around to the next row, but those were taken, so he went around the cars there, back to the pump behind the one we were originally at, and parked again. With his side next to the pump. So I said "Kenneth... the tank's on this side, remember?" and Kenneth said "... DAMN IT." So then he had to pull a fancy maneuver to get himself turned around, and then we got gas and continued on our way.

We were pretty far down Griegos, and we got to the part where it turns into Comanche, and Kenneth asked "So we're supposed to take Comanche?" and I looked at the directions, and was all "... D:". We weren't supposed to go down Griegos or Comanche at all. I had sent us in the wrong direction. Luckily however, Kenneth and his superior knowledge of the streets, got us on the right path again. However, because I got us turned around there, when we got to the intersection we were supposed to turn at, we ended up turning the wrong way, meaning that we had to make a big circle and go the right way. Then when we got to 3rd street, the street the auditorium is on, we were supposed to turn left. Problem is, the left turn was blocked with a "DO NOT ENTER" sign. We had gotten turned around again. So then we had to go around and go in the right way. But our driving mishaps didn't end there! We then had to keep a lookout for the parking structure. I spotted it, but when I did, we had already passed the entrance, so Kenneth went down the little street on the other side of the structure. Then Kenneth noticed that there was no dividing line on the street, and he said "Hiatt... I think I'm going down the wrong way on a one way street." So we turned around, and sure enough, we were. We're lucky there weren't any cars going down the street at that moment. But finally we got to the parking structure, and started walking to the auditorium.

First we went to the bathroom, and in the bathroom, their was this long succession of urinals (seriously, there must have been like twenty.), with little dividing walls between them. I walked down the line and finally picked a spot, and that was the one spot in the entire line where there wasn't a urinal. It was at least mildly amusing.

After that we got to the auditorium entrance, and saw the ticket booth with over an hour left before the concert. It was about then that I started thinking about how crushing it would be emotionally if we didn't get to go. I started thinking that I should have asked my dad to reserve tickets for us online when I was at school, that I should have borrowed Mr. Abeita's credit card and gotten the tickets there while I had the chance, something like that. Even if we didn't get tickets, I was still glad that Kenneth and I at least gave it a shot, but it would have been such a letdown for the both of us. I walked up to the ticket booth, and I was planning to say something like "I'm sure you don't have tickets left, but I hear that you can buy tickets at Will Call if the owners don't show up", something like that. Instead, I got up there and just said "Can I buy two tickets, please?".

And then there was this pause. This brief, nearly imperceptible pause as the woman inside the booth prepared to give us our fate. Kenneth and I stood there, preparing to have our hopes and dreams crushed before our eyes.

Then the woman said "Sure you can!" and Kenneth and I were ecstatic. We laughed and high fived and felt wonderful. So we bought our tickets. We were expecting to get bad seats, but we actually got seated in this section of folding chairs that was right in front of the stage, which was awesome. WIth about an hour before the show started, Kenneth and I sat on the steps to the lower level of the building. We drank soda and slid down the handrails and tossed a football around and talked about what a great adventure this was. That if we hadn't done this, we'd be at home doing homework and watching Seinfeld. Also, at one point I went up to one of the staff members by the stage door and offered to slip him twenty bucks if he let us meet Beck, but he told me we needed a special pass. Oh well.

At 7:30 the concert started. The opening act was this band we'd never heard of before called Management. They were pretty cool. They played for about half an hour, and then there was an intermission. We went out into the lobby with everyone else, and we ran into none other than Mr. Abeita! It was cool to talk to him. So then at about 8:15 we went back into the auditorium. There was ten or fifteen minutes of delay. Then the lights dimmed, and then the band members came out on stage, and everyone stood up.

And then Beck came out.

Beck came out.

Beck came out ONTO THE STAGE RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. HE WAS LIKE TWENTY FEET AWAY.

YOU GUYS BECK HAS TO BE BOTH THE GREATEST MUSICIAN OF ALL TIME AND THE COOLEST FUCKING PERSON WHO EVER LIVED EVER DKLHFOIPEUWKSHEOIFUOIAUFQEWIORUFQEIKFUOIEWKFIMOPWUFHDGOILKHWD

He opened up by singing Devil's Haircut, which has to be my second or third favorite Beck song, so that was awesome. Besides that, my favorite songs of his he played were Timebomb, The New Pollution, Loser, Que Ondo Guero, Hell Yes, I Think I'm In Love, and pretty much every other one. However, my favorite Beck song (and one of my top three favorite songs ever) is Where It's At. I would have loved the show no matter what, but I would have been at least a little disappointed if he didn't play it. But he did, at the end of the concert, and hearing that song live was... it's hard to put into words, but it was an extraordinary experience. He did a fantastic encore, and Kenneth and I stood for the entirety of the concert. It was without a doubt one of the greatest nights of my life.

After the show, Kenneth went to the vending machine to buy a chocolate bar, but two came out, and so I got the other one. So that was cool.

Kenneth and I drove home in the dark, exhausted but extremely happy, not able to put together entirely coherent sentences. I got home at about eleven. I'm not sure yet, but I get the feeling that as I look back in my old age, last night will be one of the defining moments of my adolescence.

So a couple of somewhat-exciting things happened today. First of all, it looks like I'm going to move! It's not a guarantee, but my parents made an offer on a house today, and it's looking very likely that it will get accepted. The house is still in Albuquerque, so I won't be moving that far, but it will be far away enough from my school that I'll probably have to, you know, get a car, learn to drive, and actually DRIVE there. I guess that's not such a bad thing. I went to the house yesterday, and it's pretty nice. I don't quite like it as much as my house now, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. If we get the house, we're going to get some of the walls painted. I wanted my room painted like Strong Bad's basement, but my parents refused.

Also, I got accepted to go on a six-day trip to Washington D.C. to see the presidential inauguration this January! I'll be going with People To People, the same organization that I went with to Australia and New Zealand when I was 14. It should be fun, and it will probably look good on college resumes and nonsense like that.

Earlier this afternoon I beat the first episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People! Still, I haven't beaten it 100% of the way through. I still have to get two trophies, two Teen Girl Squad cards, and three pages of the Snake Boxer 5 manual. I'd like to get all those things before I buy the second episode (Strong Badia the Free), which came out a few days ago. Episode 1 was a lot of fun, and I hope the second episode will be as good, if not better.

Last night, for the first time, I watched an episode of the 70s/80s sitcom "Taxi". I of course watched it because Andy Kaufman was in Taxi. Being the Andy Kaufman fanatic that I am, however, watching Taxi puts me in an awkward position. Andy Kaufman didn't really want to do Taxi, but he was convinced by his manager, George Shapiro. Andy really wanted to develop his stand-up routine and tour colleges, but instead he was roped in into doing a sitcom, and Andy hated sitcoms anyway. So Andy did the show, but he never enjoyed it. Therefore, I want to enjoy the show, and Andy Kaufman's character specifically, but I feel as if I'd be betraying Andy's memory by doing so.

And it's not just that. Andy Kaufman, being the odd and somewhat reclusive genius that he was, never really bonded with the other cast members of Taxi. And the cast member's didn't like Andy. Because of that, I've always, in some small way, thought of the other cast members of Taxi as being the "enemy" who just didn't understand. That makes it harder to watch the show, to see that those people are real people. I also have to keep in mind all the stuff that happened behind the scenes. One of the agreements that was made for Andy to join the show was that Tony Clifton (Andy's Vegas lounge singer alter-ego) would have several guest spots on the show. When the first guest spot was set to take place, Andy showed up dressed as Tony, with two prostitutes in tow, and caused lots of problems and distractions. Finally, Andy secretly agreed with the executives of the show that he would leave if they fired Tony in front of everyone. Well, they asked Tony to leave, and he refused. He caused a big scene, and eventually was dragged off the studio by security. After reading about the back of Taxi like that, it's weird to see it from the front.

I got my first iPod in January. As such, it was my first time having a real iTunes library. Ever since I set up my library, I've been intrigued by what song has the highest play count at any given time. See, I rarely pick and choose what songs I listen to. I almost always just set my entire library to shuffle, skip some songs, and listen to others. That way the song with the highest play count is partially how much I like the song, and partially a surprise. I'm the kind of person who likes to make little games out of things, so it wasn't long before I had created, in my mind, the "Race To One Hundred". The first time I really remember being aware of what song had the highest play count was not too long after I got my iPod: "Steady as She Goes" by The Raconteurs, which had 12 listens. Thus, it became the first leader (At least in my mind). It wasn't too long after that that the lead was taken by "Buddy Holly" by Weezer (Which technically is the first leader, because it was the very first song I listened to on my iPod). "Buddy Holly" briefly gave up the lead to both "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" by Cake and "Hey Julie" by Fountains of Wayne, but those leads were short lived, and "Buddy Holly" was the first song to make it to 25, a quarter of the way there. Then a serious challenger arose: "Where It's At" by Beck, which was either the first or second song that I bought on iTunes after getting my iPod. "Where It's At" took the lead with 29 listens.

That's when my contest hit a bit of a snag.

You see, I *ahem* didn't do so well in school that semester, and thus got my iPod taken away temporarily. I still, however, had computer privileges, so I could still listen to my songs on my iTunes. The problem is, for whatever reason, when I'm listening to my iPod, I put it on shuffle, but when I'm listening to music on my computer, I only choose songs I want to listen to at the time. And at the time of iPodlessness, I happened to be on a bit of a "Where It's At" kick. Seriously, almost all the things I was making in art at the time say "Two Turntables and a Microphone". As such, "Where It's At" built up a solid nine or ten listen lead. It also was the first song to get to 50, half of the way there. I was still without my iPod when I got the DVD of the movie Man On The Moon. As such, I felt it proper to listen to the song "Man On The Moon" by R.E.M. several times before each viewing. It was at about 60 listens that "Man On The Moon" stole the top spot from "Where It's At". I thought that "Man On The Moon" was likely to hold the top spot for quite a while. However, it was around this time that I started feeling very creepy and pathetic, and generally emo. Therefore, I started listening often to the closest thing I have to an emo song in my library: "Into the Ocean" by Blue October (Don't let the classification of "emo" turn you off, it's a beautiful song). "Into the Ocean" took the lead around 70 listens, and it was the first one to get to 75, leaving only 25 listens until the end of the Race. It was around this time that the school year ended, and I got my iPod back. After a while, the lead shifted back to "Man On The Moon" briefly, and then "Where It's At". It was about a couple weeks ago that "Where It's At" got to 99. I procrastinated for a while, and then I finally decided yesterday that it was time to bring the Race To One Hundred to a close.

As of yesterday morning, there were seven songs that had 90 listens or more:
"Where It's At" by Beck - 99
"Man On The Moon" by R.E.M. - 95
"Into The Ocean" by Blue October
"It's the End of the World as we Know it (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M. - 91
"One Week" by Barenaked Ladies - 90
"Devil's Haircut" by Beck -90
"A Long December" by Counting Crows - 90

I decided that I would give all seven of them a chance. I would set my library to shuffle until one of those seven songs came up, and then after the song was over I would shuffle it again. That way that song would gain one listen over the rest of the competition. I started this system yesterday morning, so I shuffled my iPod, and the very first song that came up was "It's the End of the World as we Know it (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M., thus putting it up to 92. I shuffled it again, and the next time one of the seven came up was in Photography, and the song was, again, "End of the World", giving it 93. Later in Photography, "Man On The Moon" came up, giving it a total of 96. Yesterday was a good day for R.E.M.. Today was the same situation, except with Beck instead of R.E.M.. The first song to come up was "Devil's Haircut" by Beck, giving it 91, and then it came up again, giving it 92.

Then, at 12:10 P.M., in Latin Class, "Where It's At" became the first song to reach one hundred.



This was my Top 25, updated immediately after the Race To One Hundred ended.

As I wrote this entry, it became more and more painstakingly clear to me that I'm the only one who could ever find this interesting, and that everyone else will just find this entry boring and monotonous. My most sincere apologies.

I'm stealing this from Mandy. So um sorry um yeah.

Step 1: Get your music player ready, put it on random, and play.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 30 songs that play.
Step 3: Let everyone guess what song (and artist!) the lines come from.

1. It's been one week since you looked at me
2. Traveling in a fried-out combie
3. Hang on, hang on tight
4. She's got a cigarette on each arm
5. Jupiter or Thor is perfect
6. Exquisite dead guy, rotating in his display case
7. Sir hand
8. A long december and there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last
9. Well high school seemed like such a blur
10. Everything is catching, yes, everything is catching on fire
11. Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner
12. I am not afraid of anything in this world
13. Hello, children
14. "I Can Hear You" by They Might Be Giants
15. So long ago I don't remember when, that's when they say I lost my only friend
16. You've been so long, your blind eyes are gone, your old bones are all you own
17. It's evil, evil is his one and only name
18. Oh, life is bigger, it's bigger than you, and you are not me
19. Got home from camping last spring
20. Every street is dark and folding out mysteriously
21. I'm your only friend but I'm not your only friend but I'm a little glowing friend but really I'm not actually your friend but I am
22. The flower said I wish I was a tree
23. Find yourself a girl, and settle down
24. If you see a faded sign by the side of the road that says 15 miles to the love shack
25. High, higher than the sun, you shoot me from a gun
26. Where'd you go when you were done
27. Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell
28. I could never sleep my way to the top
29. Don't, don't, don't let's start, this is the worst part
30. We gonna drop this next bomb for a money-makin' playa that ain't with us no mo

Some of those are ridiculously easy, especially number 14. :/

Ten bucks says the only ones people will be able to guess will be TMBG ones.

So this weekend was the NFL's opening weekend! I'm very happy about this. Also, on Saturday, in addition to doing a lot of shopping with my mom, my dad came home from Vermont! That was nice.

Today, I watched the Steelers game, and we won 38 to 17! Yeah! After the game was over, I went to Kenneth's house. Ben was there too, because they were doing a project for their Spanish class. I don't take Spanish, but I figured I'd help them out. The assignment was to make a poster telling who your favorite artist is, where they're from, what they do, etc., and write it in Spanish. However, Kenneth and Ben decided that it'd be much more bitchin' to make up an artist and make the project about him! Therefore, they wrote about "Zphen Haggard", a German techno singer who was born in the city of Atlantis in Finland. The picture they used of him was actually Karl Marx. I wonder if their teacher will notice. The second part of the assignment was to bring a CD with one of his or her songs on it, so Kenneth (who's very talented when it comes to music), made a song called "Buns and Thighs", for which I provided the vocals.

This weekend, I also listened to two Beck albums that Kenneth burned for me, Guero and Modern Guilt. Guero was quite good, but Modern Guilt didn't do it for me as much. Still, the moral to the story is that Beck is awesome.

EDIT: Also, as a technicality, I should post that thing I got from Einoo. Comment, and I will tell you three things I love about you. Except nobody do it, please. I'm terrible at this sort of thing.

I'm currently reading The Huey Williams Story by Andy Kaufman. In the introduction, it mentions that Andy once imagined the entire book taking place in the two-second span of a car crash. Therefore, I just had an idea:

A novel that takes place between the time Charlie Brown runs up to the football, and the time Lucy pulls it away.

...Yeah. That's all I got.

It's a three-day weekend! That's pretty cool. On Friday, I went to the John Brooks after school with Kenneth and got soda, but we usually do that. Last night, I went over to Travis' house and slept over there! We went ice skating, which, although I was terrible at it, was a lot of fun. Plus, they played "One Week" over the intercom on the rink. We also played lots of video games, and at about 11:30 P.M., we left to go to the Wal-Mart, which was a long way away, and it took us about two hours to get there, plus the two hours coming back. At the Wal-Mart, we bought soda, Pringles, and Double-Stuf Oreos, which is all well and good, but what I really enjoyed was walking there and back. Travis and I both had one of his earphones, and we listened to Beck for most of the way there, and we talked about a lot of things, including school and sex and Travis' past experiences with marijuana (he quit about 5 months ago, which is very good). And I dunno, but something about walking back, carrying our soda and snacks, listening to Beck, the moon shining, and seeing our shadows in front of us, just seemed really... spiritual. Something like that.

Anyway, we had lots of fun. Plus, here's a conversation that occurred in my Creative Writing class on Monday:

MR. CALLISON: Does anyone know what Sigmund Freud said the motivation for 90% of human behavior is?
SOME KID: Lions?
MR. CALLISON: ...What?
SOME KID: Didn't you say Siegfried and Roy?

Today I ditched Painting & Drawing, the period I have after lunch, to hang out with my friend Travis, because I hadn't seen him all Summer. We went to the Redi-Mart and got sodas, and drank them while sitting underneath the shade of a tree outside the John Brooks. We talked for a while, discussing things from politics, to what we did over the Summer, to music (turns out Travis likes Beck too). Anyway, it was really nice to talk to him again. I thought I had more to talk about, but I guess not.

I got Beck's Odelay and the Man On The Moon Soundtrack! I'm really excited to hear both of them. In the case of Odelay, it's because of the way I listen to music. Most people I know, if they hear a new song they like by an artist that's new to them, they'll seek out more songs by that artist. In my case, however, I'm content to just listen to the one song over and over. If you take away They Might Be Giants and The Kingston Trio away from my iTunes, there'd be no band or artist with more than 5 songs, and many bands or artists just have one song. However, that pattern of listening to music has lead to me not having a real understanding or kinship with any musician, beyond TMBG (maybe). That's not necessarily a bad thing, but when people ask me who my favorite musicians are, and I'd like to say TMBG, Beck, and R.E.M., it looks bad, considering I've only heard a few songs from the latter two. I'm only really familiar with three of Beck's songs, but I really like all three of them, and he seems like a musician I'd like to identify myself with. Hopefully listening to his defining album will help me with that.

And speaking of R.E.M., they're the band who did most of the work on the Man On The Moon soundtrack! And if that wasn't great enough, it also has the Mighty Mouse theme song, which will surely come in handy. Plus, as if I needed another reason, it's the soundtrack to the movie about Andy Kaufman. I mean, come on.

As an interesting fun fact, last night I had a dream. I don't remember most of it, but I do remember that someone discovered that Donald Faison (the actor who plays Turk on "Scrubs"), was a pedophile, and there was a TV special about it which included footage of him having sex with a child in a mall whilst wearing a Strong Bad shirt. I don't know what was wrong with my subconscious last night. :S

I took the photo at the top of this entry with my webcam, so it was backwards (and thus the words on the CDs were backwards). I flipped it with a program I downloaded, so the words are frontwards, but I dunno... my face seems just skewed enough to look disturbing. As if my face wasn't ugly enough already.

So a friend of mine, Ben, is going on this trip set up by the school to a film festival in Colorado at a high school called Talluride. They leave on Thursday morning, so this weekend they're working on raising enough money to cover everything on the trip. So I decided to help! On Friday, during the last period of the day, I had Photography, which is taught by one of my favorite teachers and an all-around cool guy, Mr. Abeita. I had completed the Photography thing we were doing at the time, so I offered to help out with what the people going on the trip were doing in the other room, which was organizing stuff that was going to be sold at the garage sale. So I went to help those guys, but what we did was less organizing the stuff and more commenting on its weirdness or awesomeness. Still, we got a little done. After the bell rang, the other people left, but I stayed. Ben and Kenneth met me in Mr. Abeita's room, and we helped unload some more stuff and put it with the rest of the garage sale merchandise. After that we went down to the Redi-Mart to get some soda and donuts before heading back to the room. So after school it was just me, Ben, Kenneth, this pretty interesting guy named Felix who's also going on the trip, Mr. Abeita, and Mr. Abeita's baby son Asa, who's adorable. We actually got a good amount done, and priced a good amount of stuff. We talked about lots of different stuff, including Seinfeld, and Mr. Abeita told us about his favorite movie, "Being John Malkovich". We stayed there and worked for about three hours, when Mr Callison showed up. Mr. Callison is the other teacher in charge of the trip, and he's Ben's, Kenneth's and my Creative Writing teacher. He is also one of my favorite teachers and an all-around cool guy. After he showed up, we unloaded some stuff he was giving to the cause, then we called it a day. Ben, Kenneth and I went back to Ben's house and played a little basketball before Kenneth and I went home.

This morning I woke up at 6:30 and went over to the school parking lot to help out with the garage sale. At first, there was a good amount of stuff to do, lots of pricing things and putting things in the right place. I also bought a good amount of stuff. I bought this stuffed bear in a little canoe for Kenneth (Ben was there but not Kenneth), because he really seemed to like it when we found it on Friday. For myself, I bought Woody and Buzz toys, and SEVEN Bloom County books. For my mom, I bought an Egyptian-themed bookend (my mom loves Egyptian stuff) , and a VHS copy of "Strictly Ballroom", her favorite movie. While I was looking through the VHS tapes, I found a copy of Being John Malkovich, the movie Mr. Abeita talked to us about yesterday! That was a neat coincidence. Anyway, the day consisted of me eating donuts, Dr. Pepper, and handfuls of popcorn, standing outside the parking lot in the scorching sun holding a sign that said "yard sale", putting stickers on stuff, playing Frisbee with Mr. Abeita and Mr. Callison (that was cool), and talking to the people going on the trip. I only really knew two of the people (Ben and this guy named Joel), but the people I didn't know who were there seemed really cool. It kind of made me wish I was going on the trip.

At 1:00, we packed up all the remaining stuff and called it a day. Ben and I dropped some stuff of at his house, and then went to the Lotaburger for lunch. While there, I ran into Pam, a woman who lived in my Compound and who moved away several years back. That was neat. After lunch, we went to the Walgreens, where I bought some soda and Tropical Dots. Then I returned home. Ben went to a barbeque for the people going on the Talluride trip at our Painting & Drawing teacher's house, but I wasn't invited to that because I'm not actually on the trip. Regardless, I had a good time today, and I feel good for helping out.

I don't know how far I am into the game, but thus far it's great. The plot and dialogue seem genuinely Homestarian, the game itself is hard enough to be a fun challenge, but easy enough to not get too frustrating. I'm not a big fan of the way Strong Bad walks, with lots of stopping and starting, but other than that it's great.

I guess I don't really have anything to say, because I've just been going to school, and nothing exciting has happened. I like Creative Writing a good deal so far, but that's about it.

I just didn't want my LJ to fall into a state of non-updating disrepair.

Yeah.

So I've been back at school for two days, and I've now been in all my classes once.

Creative Writing: This class seems awesome! The teacher looks like he's a cool guy, and the class itself should be really enjoyable.

English: Usually English is one of my favorite classes. The impression I got from my English teacher in my class with her though is that she'll be more strict and less fun than my previous teachers. Hopefully it'll be okay, though.

Astronomy: I dunno, I didn't want to take Physics, but the Astronomy teacher seemed kind of like a jerk, so I'm not sure how much I'm going to enjoy the class.

U.S. History: I miss my teacher from last year. The class will probably just be meh.

Latin II: I took Latin I last year, and I like Mr. Parnell a lot. Today in class, there wasn't any of the first day back in a new class awkwardness, it was just like we picked up where we left off at the end of last year. I think Latin is gonna be just fine.

Painting & Drawing: My first day was fun, and I think the remainder of the year should be fun as well!

Pre-Calculus: I never like math, and Pre-Calculus doesn't look to be any exception. The saving grace seems to be the teacher, who seems considerably more fun than my teacher from last year.

Photography: The Photography teacher is my Art teacher from last year, Mr. Abeita. He's awesome, and I look forward to having another class with him. Photography is something I don't have much practice in, so there will probably be a learning curve, but I'm looking forward to it.

So that's all my classes. I have two days of school left until the weekend, when the demoralizing first week of school will be over. And when that happens, I'm going to play SBCG4AP! I can't wait!