eBay strikes again

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5545067660

this is really mean of the guy to do this. read the title and the first paragraph closely and notice how it says to read the description closely. sad thing is it got up to $152.

Helloooooooooo

Anyone out there?

Must watch Christmas movies

Elf
Christmas Vacation
Home Alone
The Grinch
Santa Claus 2
The Ref
Love Actaully

I've watched 5 so far

No DEATH TO THE blog.

No death to the blog. It cant end here. I dont know what ill do with my life if the blog wasnt here to check when my curfew rolls around. Its fun to have a place to say something. Before the blog I had a big fat journal of a bunch writing that i had writen and never looked at again. I was really glad that i had something to do will all that brain work I had stored in there. Thanks to anyone who took the time to read through my stuff; eventhough some of it is very drab and redundant. Love to all of you over Christmas. Im going to go out now! Goodnight!

jenn

Wood!

Dear Red Green Irish Writer, Thank You For The "Quote" Book. Man, I'm Funny.

thanks for secret santa stuff

i just want to say whoever gave me the cookies for secret santa is awesome, they were really good. probably the best secret santa gifts are the edible ones.

On a string...

I've got the world on a string
Sitting on a rainbow
Got that string around my finger
What a world, what a life, I'm in love

I've got a song that I sing
I can make the rain go
Anytime I snap my finger
What a world, what a life, I'm in love

Life's a beautiful thing
Long as I hold that string
I'd be a silly so-and-so
If I'd ever let you go

1 week left.

memoir 2.0

this is the memoir that i turned in. about my year as a freshmen, constructive criticism would be cool (sorry for long post):

My freshmen year of high school was an eventful one in my life. I had entered high school with aspirations and wanted to get involved with the school because it seemed like a good way to meet people. That year while I was a freshman, I could not find my way around Columbine because it seemed like it was much larger place than Ken Caryl middle school. I remember wondering how I would find my way through the school. At registration I hoped there would be someone, at least one person, I knew in any of my periods that I could hang around with and relate to. “Links”, where the seniors and juniors helped us to become familiar with the school, made me nervous too. I was lucky because both my Links leaders were very cool. When I saw kids going to the Gym in crazy costumes I thought to myself “Holy crap…what the hell is all this?” After the “Links” assembly was over, I waited for my Mom outside. I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I went to see if there were any other kids I knew that I could talk to. A bunch of kids standing around with their friends, but I couldn’t find anyone I recognized so I sat on one of the rocks out front. When my Mom picked me up I was excited but nervous hoping that I would know someone in any of my periods. When the first day came I carried my schedule around the whole day and had trouble finding some classes. I asked random people as to where some of my classes were. When I was walking through Columbine I loved how everything looked. It was better than Ken Caryl in almost every way I thought. The halls were way wider, we had a cool library, an elevator, a huge auditorium, and the commons were big too. During my off hours I didn’t know anyone. I was very shy (and still am to a degree) and spent the first two weeks not hanging out with anyone during off periods or lunch periods. Finally, one day I saw these kids playing this card game so I decided to actually go over there. My knees where shaking almost, but I finally went over to ask if I could play cards with them. After they had said yes that’s where I spent the rest of the first semester on my off periods. I had decided from early on that I wanted to actually apply myself Freshmen year because in middle school I hadn’t been in any extracurricular activities and got mediocre grades. I figured that I would try out activities to meet people and improve my work ethic. I was thinking about what sports I could possibly do. I knew my hand-eye coordination wasn’t that great, so I decided to go into Cross Country. After I had signed up, the first day I got there I went up to the coach Thielking in my hiking boots and pants and asked if I could run. He told me that I’d probably die because of what I was dressed up in, and he was right. Even though I sucked horribly at running I still was proud that I actually kept on running for a distance. Before that day the longest I ran was in sixth grade during the mile. I thought the coaches were really cool too. Coach Thielking and McWilliams were really nice. I didn’t really know who to talk to because I didn’t know anyone in Cross Country either, but I eventually met some nice people. Patrick, a senior that had a locker a few lockers down from my in the locker room, was very good at Cross Country. He would yell at me whenever I felt the urge to be lazy and I’m glad he did. Nick was also on the other side in the locker room and the three of us would usually talk before the practices. Nick was a lanky Sophomore who had an unusual sense of humor, but I liked that. Me and Nick were around the same skill level in Cross Country. Neither of us were really good, but I was glad I got to hang around both of them. Patrick was really good at cross country though. He always got way better times than me. One of the times we went to a tournament the three of us got bored and we wandered into some woods nearby. We just talked and tried to pass time until we had to run. We came across an abandoned sleeping bag with a bunch of pokemon cards and a lot of dirty clothes. We just stared at it all wondering why someone would leave something like that in a forest. After that we called the spot ‘Hobo palace’ and we wandered back to where the rest of the teammates were. We spent the rest of the time between when we had to run talking about what kind of person would leave those kind of things. After sitting around with Nick and Matt I figured out from the coach that we had to go soon, so I looked around to find a good place to change into my competition outfit. After scanning the area for a good place to change clothes I saw two really long lines of people waiting to go into a port-a-potty. After waiting a long time there was I was only waiting on the person before me to get out. When the door opened up the guy looked sick and I asked him “are you okay?” The kid said “I’m kind of sick…sorry.” My god, it smelled like something died in there, it was so horrible. I had to hold my breath while getting dressed in my Columbine outfit. After that was over with I went to sit back at my bag and got my nerves out before they called us to go to the starting line. The girls were running before us and they were just crossing the finish line, so I decided to go over to the finish line to root them on. Some of the girls were really attractive, so I didn’t mind watching them. After they had gone I went up to finish the race. I did pretty badly in the end, but I was still was glad that I was out the house and around people. When I got home I crashed and went to bed really early. Everyday when we were huddled up doing our stretches I saw this girl that looked really cool and cute. I was really nervous about actually going up and talking to her, so I worshipped from afar from a while. I didn’t know how to go up and say ‘hi’ because I figured it would be really awkward. Finally, one day I told myself that I really wanted to get to know this girl so I would go up and try to make small talk. She was by the sign and I figured that that was the perfect time to try to initiate conversation. My heart was beating really hard and my knees were shaking. I finally managed to say ‘hi’, but I didn’t know what to talk about. I had a bunch of thoughts going through my head, so I asked a bunch of questions that I thought would be good ice breakers, like asking questions about her and she gave one word answers. I was thinking “Oh my god, I am completely bombing this.” She looked like she didn’t know what to say and she inched away slowly (if you are reading this, sorry about writing this and i know you are a nice person). I was glad I finally got the guts and went up to talk to her, even though I didn’t do so well. As we got further into the year I learned that it was a smart idea to drink as much water as I could before Cross Country practices. Otherwise, I would get really bad cotton mouth. I also learned to fear two certain words while I was in Cross Country, “rebel hill.” I would always die when I went up that hill because it was usually 85 degress and up and we would do multiple sprints up the hill. I would always rush over to the cooler so I could get a drink before everyone else. Even though I died almost all the time when I did cross country, I was glad I got to get out and see people.

One of the other activities I tried out was Choir and the musical. Even though I had not ever been in any Choir group before my Freshman year, I had been to a lot of my sister’s concerts. She was the one that talked me into Choir. Before the freshmen year started I had to fill out what electives I wanted to go into. I had chosen everything except one class, so I asked my Mom and my Sister what a good class would be to take. They had suggested a lot of classes, but I didn’t want to take any of them. Finally, my sister had suggested I go into Choir. I told her that I hadn’t been in Choir before and I probably wouldn’t be too good at it, but I finally filled it in because I didn’t know what else to take. It actually turned out to be really fun. It was funny when Mr. Andres (senior) made fun of us when we were sucking really bad. He would make fun of the girls sometimes and sometimes he would make fun of us guys. We had a strong section because of the seniors that were in the class and needed credits. The seniors made the class interesting. In our base section there was this John Bright. It’s hard to describe him, but he was really cool. He talked about how he and some other guys pulled the plug on the piano while everyone was singing and how Mr. Andres had no idea what had caused the piano to stop. Joe Dreaden was about as tall as I was at the time but he had a lot of muscle and he wasn’t someone I would want to mess with. He acted like he was tough but I thought he was cool anyways. I had always watched concerts my Sister had been performing in, but it felt weird to be performing too. I quickly learned that the robes and stage lights make you really hot. The first time I was up there I thought about how my Sister always said it was like an oven on the stage. It felt cool to look into the crowd and know that they were there to listen to us. Later on in the year Mr. Andres needed more guys in the musical, so he asked us if we wanted to be in it. I jumped on the chance because I thought it would be another good opportunity to meet people. We did Fiddler on the Roof and I was in Chorus. We did a lot of work, but on my breaks I would make card houses or other card games with whoever was around. The teacher’s lounge was the place where everyone spent their time on their breaks. People would do anything from homework to watching TV or playing video games. One time this kid brought in his Sega Genesis and we all played against each other in Sonic. We did a lot of late nights, but it was time I had spent outside of my house.

About a month before homecoming rolled around I felt like I wanted to go to homecoming. I didn’t have any idea who I would ask, because there was no in particular I really felt like asking. I ended up going and I learned that I didn’t know how to dance, but it was all right because a majority of the guys I saw sucked also. I spent most of the night wondering if someone saw how bad I looked dancing. My date was really cool, but we were just friends after that.

By the time the year was almost over I realized I had made some progress with people and trying to be less awkward, but I still had a long way to go. Girls didn't scare the crap out of me as much as they did when I started freshman year. One day I asked myself “What qualities do I like in my friends or a girlfriend?” I thought the question would be easy, but it wasn’t. The more and more I thought about it I realized I didn’t have a definite answer for that. All of the social interaction I have ever had in highschool hopefully will help me answer this question, because even as a senior I have no clue.

my old memoir

was going to have this as my memoir, but I decided to write about something else. (kind of light topic, didn't correct any errors in it though):

Karate was really fun when I was younger. My Dad had taken Karate before and he thought it might be a good idea to go check out this place near our house. I remember hoping I wouldn’t actually have to get involved in Karate when my Dad mentioned it. About a week later we went over to the Karate school and he was impressed with the Senseis of the school and the way they treated their students. I remember I was in sixth grade that day and I absolutely did not want to be there. However, when I first saw my Gi I was excited. I wanted to join the class right away and I took my first class that day. I took a white belt and got dressed up. Even though the class was with kids that were way younger than me, I thought Karate was the coolest thing. I was excited when I got home and I imagined myself as being a master at Karate. I imagined myself blocking every punch threw by a made up guy in my imagination. Part of why I liked Karate so much was because of the people I met while in it. The people that run the school are Sensei Chuck and Sensei Carol. Sensei Chuck is a very nice guy and had been a police officer. He was very intelligent and had a degree in Psychology and a very reserved guy. Sensei Carol on the other hand had a very bubbly personality and she was very cool. She is an out of the box thinker and very bright. I really did enjoy Karate because of the way people interacted with each other. The first day I was there I saw these guys sparring and then afterwards they went over and gave each other high fives. Anyways, as I progressed through the belts I got to know more people. My Dad was happy whenever he took me to Karate also because he would talk to nearly every parent in the school. As time went on I got to know Sensei Carol and Sensei Chuck more and realized how cool they were. As I got better reflexes and technique I started to compete in sparring at tournaments. Tournaments are held in huge areas, looks like an empty warehouse. I remember getting extremely nervous before every tournament. I would pace around until my round was ready to go. Honestly, the first time I competed at a tournament I got destroyed. It was fun though because we would all go to Red Robins after the tournaments and we would have a party of 30. I also asked out the first girl I’ve ever asked out in Karate. I was really infatuated with this girl and she was one of the prettiest girls at the school in my opinion. I was way too nervous to actually ask her out on a date for a long time, but we had classes together and we would partner up often. I remember we would play around and laugh during class. She was aggressive whenever she sparred against me though. We would go against each other often and the Senseis didn’t mind it too much because we were pretty much the same in weight, height, and skill level. One of the classes I ate dinner before and I dreaded the fact that Sensei Rick was going to head the class. If he was heading the class you knew that you would feel like you want to puke by the end of the class. That class as I thought was a very intense class. Eventually, I was paired up with Monique and we sparred. Soon after we started I decided to do what I wanted to do long ago, I would ask her out. Maybe 5 minutes before class stopped I asked her out,then she said yes and I puked all over the mat. I remember some kid asking if I had Chinese food for Dinner.

THWACK!

"Jingle Bells, Batman Smells... Robin Laid An Egg! The Batmobile Lost a Wheel,
And the Joker Got Away!"

yeah thats right

spiderman for life!

Hi locals

Just changing it up a bit--you know--something dark for the holidays. 11 days left together--moisture in the corner. Do you want me to leave this blog up after the semester ends? Do you need my sizes and fav colors for Christmas?

4-99 Black

Cliques and Clicks

I was teaching the novel a separate peace. I talked to my students about cliques, groups, circles, friendship, belonging, being on the fringe. I related my stories of being a brown kid in a predominantly white high school. We talked about how it is also OK to belong and fit in. We all want to fit in. I wore clothing to look more like the majority.

We named some of the cliques in school; skaters, preps, jocks, goths, but we never mentioned a trench coat mafia. We talked about why some teens wear black. This was no dissertation statistically riddled with research, but my freshman could see the symbolism of wearing black—the absence of color the presence of separation and belonging. We talked about Black being the color you wear until you find the color you are.

Black is teenage purgatory.

I shared my observations of watching a neighbor boy-a nice kid, walk home many days. He always—not sometimes-always wore some piece of black clothing. He’s a clean kid: nice haircut, nice black pants, brand name black backpack, and nice black athletic shoes. I asked my students why this kid always wore black—he wasn’t a Goth. They told me that he just likes black. They told me he was trying to fit into lots of groups. They speculated that if he wore black, even if he looked nice, kids that were skaters and preps would like him