Getting a Life

McKinney Falls

2010-05-06T10:33:00.004-05:00

Went there on Tuesday to do some bouldering with friends. Climbed some of the classics but didn't send any of those. I got a V2 and flashed some V1's, but no serious problems. Apparently McKinney ratings are harsh, they say it's graded about a full letter grade below what an equivalent problem would be anywhere else, so I guess that makes me feel a little better. Regardless, I still need to work on my outdoor bouldering because real rock, limestone here in Texas, just feels so much different than those fake gym rocks. The gym really can't prepare you too well for outdoors. I think I'm gonna try to find different outdoor boulders to climb on this summer and see what happens.

In other gym related news I got a clean ascent of this crack route I've been trying. I only tried it two times before and got it clean on the third try, so it wasn't a very difficult route. It's unrated but I'd guess somewhere around a 5.11a, nothing too difficult but it's a different style of climbing then what I'm used to. I really enjoyed it though, using different types of holds and locks in order to climb straight up the crack, using a lot more friction climbing than anything else since you really don't get good places to pull from or stand off of.

Here's a picture of the crack, it's the one on the left hand side and is about a 50 foot route.

Well that's all for now. I might go to Reimers tomorrow or Pace Bend on Saturday, possibly neither but hopefully both, if I do I'll blog about those trips as well.

New Idea

2010-05-01T20:09:00.002-05:00

I decided I'm going to change this blog to a blog where I basically just post on dates when I achieve something cool, or something I've been working at in rock climbing. I can't remember how long it's taken me to move up in bouldering or top roping grades, so I think putting the date down on digital paper somewhere will help me out, help me gauge progress. And since no one reads this blog anymore anyway, and we've got Facebook for important stuff, why not?

Ok so, past few months...started bouldering when school started at the beginning of the '09-'10 school year, started bouldering around a V2, and couldn't send a single 5.9 climb yet.

May 1st, 2010, the end of the '09-'10 school year, I'm bouldering V5-V6, and top roping 5.11's. Not a huge improvement, but whatever.

Most recent achievement: 4/23/10: Sent a 5.11b and a 5.11c that I'd been projecting for a while. These are both indoor routes so the grades are a bit subjective, the towers though are 54 feet so they are some pretty long climbs even if the moves aren't all that difficult.

Not a whole lot of progress on the bouldering front recently, I was hoping to get my first V7 before I left for the summer but with only 2 more weeks that's probably not going to happen. I have one more move and then the top out which I have yet to stick on the V7 I'm projecting in our gym. Like I said, probably won't get it within the next two weeks but if I do, well then that'll be cool and I'll post it on here...maybe, I may not even keep up this idea. :p

As if you didn't already know

2009-09-02T17:26:00.003-05:00

As the title would suggest the topic of this post is something anyone who has the perseverance to still be coming here would already know.

I've been going to school at the Texas State University in San Marcos for the last few weeks now. I'm actually living on campus, have a dorm room, and a roommate (although he is never really around and doesn't sleep here).

The main reason I'm writing this is just to get some more writing practice in. My English 1310 (which is College Writing I) teacher has assigned a number of different papers, writing assignments, and short essays throughout the year and I thought I could get some practice this way.

So what do I spend my time doing in college?

Well I've been getting up early again (7 A.M, may not be early for most but it sure as heck is for me). I've typically been going to the gym on the weekdays which I don't have classes, that's Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Actually I have 2 classes on Wednesday, but they are both only an hour long and are spaced several hours apart. The rest of my classes I take on Tuesday and Thursday, and it's pretty much back to back from 8 AM till 5:00 PM, with a hour-and-a-half space around noon for lunch. When you look at it like a work day that's really not so bad, but it does mean a lot of studying needs to get done. Speaking of studying, the amount of studying you need to do totally depends on the class. For example math (which is College Algebra) I am more than a little bit behind in thanks to not having done it for so many years, and as a result I need to study much longer and harder to keep up in that class, but I'm managing.

Apart from the classes there's lots of recreational things to do here. My dorm is about 5 minutes walking distance from the local park where you can go swimming, tubing, play volleyball, cookout, basketball, skate, or just generally chill.

The west side of campus (a good 15 minute uphill walk for me) has the rec center which has about 4 full sized basketball courts, racquetball rooms, and a 53 foot rock wall to climb. According to the folks there it's the third highest in Texas, and I've been doing that quite a bit. There's also every type of weight machine imaginable, around 50 or so treadmills, a few dozen stair steppers, bicycle machines, and free weights galore. The best part is that it's all free (apart from the rock climbing which charges 45 dollars for the semester) and you can go pretty much whenever you want.

The food is one of the things here that I'm a bit disappointed in. It's not that the food itself is bad, but a meal plan was required and is rather expensive, and looking back I'm sure I didn't get enough. I bought 150 meals for the semester, and now two weeks in I've already used almot 20, and that's been sparing. Next semester I'll definetly go for the 200. There are 2 different all you can eat buffets, and a number of food court style dining areas, so there is quite a lot of variety in the food.

In addition to all this there's also the whole "party" thing. Apparently (and I say apparently because I don't know of anyone who's experienced this and been around to tell me about it) there is a tradition amongst the fraternaties and sororities every year when the new freshmen come in called "Rushing". This is when each fraternaty or sororoty holds a bunch of parties and events in order to recruit new members. Most of them have little booths set up around "the Quad" (which is the main walking area in between classes and on any given day between 8 AM and 3 PM will be packed out with around 3000 students) where they try to get people to join up. Due to this there are a lot of things to do on the weekends, and lots of parties to attend.

One final thing about campus life is the fact that there really isn't ever much time to do anything. Always rushing from one class to the next, or to go exercise, or study, or do something with friends. On that note I'll leave you and hope that you enjoyed this small insight into the new goings on in my life.

Campus

2009-04-20T20:01:00.002-05:00

The title of this post can mean 2 things...most people will know immidiately what it usually refers to, and probably only Ben and David will know the other thing it refers to, but unfortunately for Ben or Dave, I'm talking about the former, not the latter.

So I went on Saturday to check out the campus of Tx-State University with my parents. The size surprised me, it's at least a mile or two from end to end, and with all the rolling hills which the campus is built on it's sure to be some great exersize getting from one class to another. We didn't get to see the dorms, but I'll see those when I go to New Student Orientation, which I still haven't picked a date for. Not sure if I should do it before or after this Indianapolis-Family Reunion trip, but I'm thinking after, too much of a headache otherwise. I've also got another test next week so hopefully I won't fail that miserably. If I do fail it blocks me from taking certain courses and I have to take some remedials. I'm pretty confident that I've got the English, and writing sections all locked up, but the math may present a problem. I suppose either way it's better to fail that section and have to start learning again than to be taking math classes in college that I'm not prepared for.

I did get some good news about the financial aid though. When you sign up for the FAFSA they give you a number called your EFC (Expected Family Contribution), I thought the whole time that this was a number used by the college to determine how much you should get in financial aid, and while that is true, it's also the actual dollar amount that you're expected to cover. My EFC is 140. So if the cost of attendance is going to be 17,000 anually, then financial aid will try to cover 16,860 dollars of that. The federal pell grant is only 5,200 (approx) but the Texas Grant is another 6,000, then they have loans and work-study programs, I'm not sure how much I'll get but I am glad that I'm still able to handle it all.

In other news we had a party lastnight, lots of alcohol (I had to drive home so I didn't drink too much), lots of old friends, a few old flames, and a pretty decent time. Unfortunately I seem to have caught something there because today I can barely talk. And since my job requires me to talk pretty much non-stop all day long (and because I would've only gotten 4 hours of sleep if I'd gone to work) I decided it'd be best all around for me to stay home today and take care of business instead.

Anyway, that's pretty much what's been going on, sorry it's so boring, and sorry I don't have pictures of the campus, if I ever get into photography I'll be sure to post plenty, but 'till then you'll have to just settle for the written word.

Accepted!

2009-02-19T22:41:00.002-06:00

Okay so where to begin, haven't updated in a while. First things first I guess.

So I put in a few applications to a few schools, colleges that is, in order to further my education...although really it's just to make lots of money. One of those applications went to a school in San Marcos Texas known as the Texas State University, and as of last week I have been accepted to join. Yes it's a strange prospect indeed. Most people have older siblings who did the whole college thing, just a part of life like highschool, only one of my older siblings has gone to college, and he's still going. I guess trade school kinda sorta counts, but this is it, I mean, this is like for real college, living on campus, with dorms and parties and fraternites and mid-terms and the whole deal, it's just a little bit exciting.

Obviously I have a few opportunities that my siblings didn't have which are helping to allow me to go, such as timing so don't nobody get offended and feel like I'm taking a crack at you.

Having said that it's also not set in stone that I'll go either. I still have to come up with tuition and room and board and all the rest of that good stuff.

Well enough of that topic. In other news I also got a promotion in my job. Actually I got promoted about a month and a half ago, but I'm finally reaping some of the benefits, such as a not-so-shitty schedule. For the last few months I've been working this job I've worked the weekends with tuesday and wednesday off, but now I get to work like a normal person and get Saturday and Sunday off, quite happy about that. Now mind you, I'm not NOT complaining about my job, it's still terrible, has lousy pay, and could quite possibly make a person lose their sanity, but it's getting better.

I think that's about all that's happened to me since I last posted, gotta do my taxes and stuff...oh and there was the whole episode with my car, getting that ticket for not having inspection but not able to get inspection on it because there was something wrong with the catalytic converter and having to pay a bunch of money to get the catalytic converter fixed and it STILL not passing inspection and then taking it back to get repaired and them telling me there's nothing wrong with it and then getting it inspected AGAIN and FINALLY passing (5 inspections total). But I'm pretty sure I already told everyone about that.

Hmmm, oh yeah, I'M GOING TO COLLEGE!!!

disclaimer: The above statement should not be taken as a fact, as I actually may not end up being able to go to college but should rather be taken as an exclamation of joy and excitement at the upcoming prospect. If things do not turn out in my favor and I cannot go to college this disclaimer prohibts anyone from teasing/laughing/mocking or jesting in any manner about said failure.

People suck

2008-12-13T21:27:00.002-06:00

No such thing as a good friend...

Don't trust anyone that's not related to you...

Good people are only good because they want something in return...

Nuff said

Vehicular Update

2008-11-21T18:55:00.002-06:00

So I don't know if I mentioned it in my other post, but a few weeks ago the faithful old subaru I was driving around bit the dust. To be more accurate I was chugging along when all of a sudden it started to sound like it was going to explode, sounded as loud as a train. So I pulled over and eventually figured out that one of my spark plugs was loose, no big deal I thought, so I screwed it back in and went on my merry way. But apparently it came loose for a reason, and about 20 miles later it popped out again, and this time it wouldn't go back (I later realized that the threading in the hole which the plug screws into was stripped out).
Since then I've made a few attempts at fixing it but so far none have worked, (not even that JB weld stuff...:( ) so I've been driving around my new car, the 5-speed Saturn instead.
You actually learn to drive a standard remarkably quickly when it's forced upon you, and the 15 mile stop-light-infested parkway that I drive down twice a day to get to and from work only makes the learning process that much faster.
Of course there's a good reason I wasn't driving it earlier besides being new at it, and that was the lack of insurance, registration, and inspection on the vehicle.
I have since purchased insurance and registration (which was surprisingly no headache at all, I didn't have to go back to the house for missing documents or sign a 110 pages of legal documents, I did have to pay $170 tax on the car though...that was a disappointing, but not nearly as much as the headache I've been having getting the thing inspected.). Yes so far this car has failed inspection twice...why?
Well the first time it was because I had my check engine light on. The guy said "Well it might be an error cuz we don't see anything wrong with it, so I'll delete the code and after about 100 miles or so if it doesn't pop up again we'll get it taken care of."
Naturally I listened to him, not being much of a mechanic or really knowing anything about cars myself and after about 150 miles I took it back, still no check engine light. When I took it back however it failed inspection again, and this time they discovered it was my emissions. Turns out I've got a bad catalytic converter (I did some research and figured out what that does, and now I'm cursing my luck), so apparently the car runs fine, a catalytic converter isn't even something a car needs to run, but in order to ensure that I don't pollute the atmosphere more than is necessary I have to reduce my emissions with one of these things, and of course they happen to be made out of a precious metal like platinum, making them rather expensive.
The final price the guy quoted me for getting a new one installed was just under $400 dollars. I'm currently looking around for a better deal, but man...I'm honestly a little fed up with all these car issues.
I learned a while ago not to fret about stuff like this or make a big deal out of it, worst case scenario I pay the $400 and get it repaired and inspected, and really that's not a huge deal. I just hope this car has no more little expensive surprises waiting for me.....

And I thought I had nothing to post about

2008-11-05T13:23:00.002-06:00

Ok so this is the 3rd time I'm trying to post this post. A good rule of thumb for posting should be that you shouldn't do it at the same time as trying to reactivate your copy of windows vista. Anyway it's all activated now so I'll get it actually posted this time.

As I was saying the last 2 times I bought a new car, it's a 2000 Saturn SL1, 5-speed manual. The only problem being that I've never actually driven one before so I'm learning. It is however not as hard as I thought it would be, I think I'm learning fairly quickly.
Another thing about getting my first real car is that it needs insurance which, for a 19 year old, single white male who's only had his license for about 10 months, can be pretty expensive. So once I get the money to buy insurance I need to get the the car registered and then inspected and then I can start driving it regularly, for now I'm still driving Dave's car.

Anyway I would follow this up with more information but, wouldn't ya know it, Vista is asking me to restart the computer again to help remove potential spyware or something. Curses.

Happenings, and then some drawn out musings about religion

2008-09-18T23:12:00.003-05:00

Well I don't have anything worth saying right now, but since when has that stopped me? I sometimes wish I had pictures to post because then my blog would be interesting like everyone else that has pictures to post and have interesting blogs. But I guess I'll have to make do with words.

In recent news, a hurricane blew into houston and my parents, younger sister, older sister and her family all decided to chill with us over here for a week. Rosie and Ricky took my room and my computer, so I've been sleeping on the couch and writing this post currently on Jamie's computer. But I don't really mind, I figure a while away from the computer is probably a good thing.
I finally got some new wheels for my car, it's had some bent rims for a while, still need to get them put on the car though, wal-mart won't put my old tires on new rims, they'll only put brand new ones on, but they don't sell tires in my car's size. They basically told me that they couldn't help me. It's rare but this is proof that Wal-Mart is not ALWAYS your one stop shop. (Take note of my use of the word "Always" being that it is the Wal-Mart slogan.)

It's amazing how quickly you can start seeing the world from a non-religious standpoint. It can be quite liberating to stop wondering all the time whether what you are thinking, believing, watching, reading, listening to, or playing, is "out of it" and just do something because it makes you happy. I guess some religions would argue that most things that make you happy are bad for you or something crazy like that. They would probably use parellels like candy being really tasty but really bad for you. Of course to that I would say that anything in excess is bad for you. But nevertheless, whether something is bad for me or not, life is so much less stressfull when you can just say "maybe so, but even if it is I'm willing to take that risk".
I don't think I could ever again be in a group or organization that tells me what to believe. Now you family members reading this don't think I'm trying to say that the familiy is a controlling organization that tells it's members what to believe. I'm simply saying that about all organized religion, it doesn't matter what church, what religion, what group, they've all got their own rules and regulations, their own beliefs, and really there is not much room for personal expansion and accomodation.
Perhaps you don't believe everything that you're required to, does that make you wrong? I think if given the chance to express their individual beliefs freely, without running the risk of discrimination both minor and major, very few people would have exactly the same beliefs about anything. Which leads me to believe that organized religion, or any group that demands that people believe exactly the same things, is fundamentally flawed.

Now lets just call a spade a spade here. Anyone who reads this knows that most of my references are going to be towards the family. And rightfully so as it was the organization I was involved with. That being said don't be offended or take it personally if I seem to be specifically targeting the family, most of what I will say about the family goes just as much for other religions but as the family is the one I have experience with it is the one that I'm going to be referring to.
(However the fact that I'm not capitalizing the family's name is done out of pure spite!! :P)

Now a lot of people are probably going to ask "Is it any better now? Now you aren't sure what to believe. Isn't it better to believe in something and be wrong than to believe in nothing?".
To which of course I would answer yes, it is I agree with that. But a person can believe in a great many things. A person can believe in ideals, moral values, ethics, and be a good samaritan, but not believe in Jesus. Is he so wrong?
The way I see it, a good person is a good person. There is no religious criteria for being a good person. Most of the founders of the greatest religions in the world realized this. Most educated people in these same religions realize this. Unfortuantely many of the masses do not. Many of the masses are led to believe that their twist on religion is correct and anyone who believes otherwise, while perhaps remaining a good person, will be just ever so slightly behind on the spiritual totem pole.
Not only do I see this as lacking any substantial evidence, but ignorant as well as contrary to the teachings of most founders of religious organizations.

As for whether or not I still consider myself a christian, still believe in Jesus, that remains to be seen, but what I'm trying to point out here is that Jesus never started a church....Peter did that.
John the baptist could well have started a religion (Christianity) but instead chose to wander in the wilderness baptizing and preparing the way for Christ. Most great men did not get to where they were but following the masses, by involving themselves with groups and organizations.
Most of the great christian missionaries of the 19th century had to branch out on their own, with little or no support from their churches.
Sometimes in order to do what they believed their god wanted them to do, they had to break away from organized religion. And most did not break away in order to start their own. Most ended up alone, doing what they thought was right without having to worry about anyone telling them otherwise, and they knew better than to try and convince others to follow them on their path.
Each man walks his own path, and it is for him alone to walk it. Paths might intersect and join for a while, but when the time comes for them to break apart each man must be willing to continue down on his own path.
And because that was just a little bit to deep for me I'm going to insert a goofy analogy...they say everyone walks their path because walking is something a person does alone. Otherwise they might carpool, or ride the bus. Which would indicate many people following the same path, not just a similar one or one that merges with another for a while, but the exact same one. A person that does that cannot have a path of their own.

Now I'm sure I'm going to get teased a lot for those last few paragraphs, people saying that it doesn't make any sense, that organized religion has nothing to do with taking people off their own paths and following the path of one person, but honestly that's the way I see it.

How I got onto that subject I don't know, it's just something I was thinking about at the time.
Anyway, I don't think too many people read this blog anymore anyway, so what better place for a little contraversy huh?

Stay tuned next month where I will muse about....politics!

The latest buzz

2008-08-13T20:48:00.003-05:00

So for those of you who don't know, I've been excelling as an employee in the food industry for the last several months at a fine dining restaurant, (Quiznos). For those of you who don't know we happen to specialize in sub sandwiches.
Needless to say, customer satisfaction was up along with sales, and I was rapidly rising through the ranks, achieving promotions and increased salary.
Now before I go any further I have to point out that I myself was perfectly happy working there, I made enough money for what I needed, I didn't have to work too hard, and apart from my hands smelling like onions waaaaay too much it really was not so bad.
Unfortunately it turns out that most people look down on an 18 year old having a job like this. "Isn't that the kind of place where highschool kids work?" they would ask of me. Although the most common phrases were more like "So....how's Quizno's? (giggle, cackle, snort)". Well as you can imagine, my world started to come crashing down on my quicker than you can say 'five dollar footlong'.
To add to my shame and humiliation my younger brother (my junior by a full 2 years) began to work in the food industry as well, (a respectable establishment which shares it's name in common with an even more respectable blue hedgehog) and to my surprise/dismay, was making more money than me, due to an inordinate amount of tips.
Now you must understand that as an older sibling there is a constant need to remain ahead of my younger brother in almost all things. Winning and the appearance of dominance/superiority are crucial. Second place just will not due.
Now granted this may be a shallow, narrow-minded, and egotistical viewpoint, but it is the one I was born with, and as such it must be respected. Well of course this travesty could not be tolerated. I knew there was no way I could remain at my current quarry and get ahead of my brother financially. (And between you and me the Quiznos comments were getting a little bit old)
And so it is that I have new employment.

I have changed my specialization as well from the food industry to electronics/computers. I will begin my new job as a computer/electronic tech support specialist for the good people at Samsung Electronics on Monday. (I feel I should perhaps mention that this position is temp-to-hire, although I have been assured that because of the great need for staff I will most certainly be hired, I would feel dishonest if I did not point this out.)

Now of course there will always be the nay-sayers who will say "you should just be a waiter, you'll make more money in tips". Unfortunately I have never fancied the idea of waiting tables, firstly because it is a common cliche, that is all too readily made fact, for young people who leave the family.
That is the path trodden by the masses, and as anyone who knows me will attest, I will more often than not choose the less common, the side not often taken, even to my own detriment.
The second reason is that I could not think of a job I would rather do less than wait tables. Some people may have been made for it, I was not. (This is in no way meant to be taken as an insult to those who are in this fine profession as I am sure many are not only good at it, but enjoy it as well, but like so many things that are done en masse, it is not for me.)

This is the predominate focus of my life at the moment and as such there is not much else I can report that has been going on. I did also purchase a skateboard recently and have been attempting to learn, but...I'm no Sean White.
(Yes I know he's a snowboarder, but everyone says he looks like me so I hope you forgive me for using him rather than a more commonly revered skater such as Rodney Mullen, or Geoffrey Rowley.)

Well I hope this post finds you all in good health, don't be afraid to drop me a line sometime, as I am never too busy stop and chat...unless I am too busy, in which case I will politely request that you call again at a later hour.

Until next time.

2008-07-08T19:01:00.003-05:00

Well I guess it's about time to update this boring ol' blog. Not that there is really anything to post about mind you.
I'm still goin through my same old routine. Wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, chill, go to bed. Repeat.
So yeah, it's not like I have anything new to write about. But I figured it was time to move those photo's of me down a post or two. In case anyone didn't make the connection within the last month or so, the photo's meant that I got my haircut. Yeah, I know you knew that, but there might have been at least one half-wit out there who is slapping his or her forehead right now going "DUH! I can't believe I didn't realize that".

Speaking of foreheads, mine is doing well, it's been pleasantly round and acne free for quite a while now, for which I am quite thankful.
And as long as we're talking about body parts I feel obliged to mention that while I may not be doing too much "Exercise" the amount of guitar hero that I've been playing has not only increased the coordination and strength of my left hand, but also the endurance and timing of my right, as well as overall rhythm and general coordination.
Yes, all in all you can see there are many healthful benefits to video games. But I'm sure you didn't come to this blog to read about that, you came here because you wanted to see something important, something you might have cared about, something worth reading. But instead all you are going to get is my rambling. Sorry to disappoint you. Although really, if any of you really care what's going on in my life, maybe drop me a line sometime huh? You know, pick up that phone and dial my number (which I'm not going to put on the internet) right now. Because honestly there is only one of you (and you know who you are) that ever calls me, for which I am quite thankful. But as for the rest of you...tsk tsk. FOR SHAME!

Anyway, that' about it for my rambling. Take care y'all.

Before and After

2008-05-29T18:16:00.001-05:00

I still can't beat this song on Hard

2008-04-28T16:01:00.002-05:00

Check this out, this kid is only 8 years old...or at least was only 8 when he made this video. I can't beat the song on hard, and he's doing it nearly perfect on expert.

The World as it could have been

2008-04-07T05:05:00.002-05:00

Ever wonder what would have happened if Lucifer had been satisfied with his position in heaven? (those of you who do not believe in the biblical series of events leading up to the fall of man, including the fall of Satan himself, stop reading here.) (Those of you who do not believe in the fall of man also stop reading here)
Imagine if when we thought of archangels instead of thinking "Michael and Gabriel" we thought of Lucifer and Pooches. (Editors note: Pooches was the second highest archangel in heaven when Lucifer rebelled, and was one of the first to be swayed to the dark side. As punishment for his rebellion the Lord had his name stricken from all of history, just like Xerxes said he would do to Leonidas, but obviously failed.)

You see, the world would be a very different place without a Satan. Most believe that if it weren't for Satan we would still be in the garden of Eden. We would all be living in a paradise where nobody would grow old, there would be no diseases, no one would be overweight, everyone would be naked. The kind of place where your girlfriend's mom was as hot as she was.
I have my theories about this, would we really have been there still? After all, Adam and Eve blew it pretty quickly, how do we know in the thousands of years that have passed from then till now that a fruit would not fall from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, where the wind would carry it and make it roll next to an apple tree, and Eve would take it and eat thinking it to be an Orange. Sounds far fetched, but it could happen.

Imagine if that had been the case, and we were thrown out of Eden, but there was no Satan to tell us to build towers of Babel or watch American Idol. What would we do? Where would we be as a species? Would we have been conquered by aliens? Would there even be aliens since there would be no fallen angels and therefore no nephilim which EVERYONE knows are aliens?

These and many other questions you may spend time pondering, but allow me to save you the trouble of thinking, as I have already done it for you. Indeed, why should anyone think of something unless it is something that has not been thought of before. If a thought has been thought, and a problem solved, why should one solve it himself when he could google it and find the answer without ever having to work it out on his own?

The answer to the question posed is that we would be exactly as we are now, the only difference being there would be no towers (indeed no building more than two stories high), and obviously no one would watch American Idol.
There may be a few other minor changes of course. Rock and Roll would need a new icon, most likely they would take a goat.
Wicca would be a course in college, and it would be the art of making Wick for a candle.
Stonehenge would also likely look quite different, probably not the shape, or the design, or even the materials used (massive rocks) but it would probably be painted a cheerier color.

As for religion, I don't think it would change much. Man turned it's back on God without too much help from Satan. If we managed to do it (for a second time) with Satan's help a good 2000 years ago, I'm sure we would have done it by now without his help.

What this means is that the crusades could have continued as they always did. (Jesus vs. Mohammed, God vs. Allah. That's like Clark Kent Vs. Superman, they're the same thing, except one wears glasses.{If you were wondering who was who, God is Superman and Allah is Clark Kent because Allah wears glasses}) So really when you break down those wars Satan didn't have anything to do with it, that was all our fault.

In fact when you look at pretty much everything in the world today it's hard to see the work of Satan. I mean it's one thing when something is obviously due to Satan's intervention, like the creation of Ghost Rider, but very few things fall under that category.
Most things in this world are messed up because of ourselves, and our own stupid mistakes, and the sooner we stop blaming our problems on Satan (and George W. Bush........Mofo) the better off we'll all be.

Oh, and this whole "don't blame your problems on the Devil" thing, goes double for God. Seriously, leave the dude out of it, he's got his own problems to deal with, what with paying for Jesus' private therapy sessions after that whole crucifixion thing.

So if you've ever been curious at how the world would be without Satan. Now you know.

VOTE DEMOCRAT!!

Not an Update

2008-03-24T19:40:00.002-05:00

Well nothing new is going on with me, so if you're looking for juicy details about my life you've come the wrong place.
But I will say that things are doing good, life is fine and dandy. I still don't have a job yet...a little bummed about that, but all good things come to those who wait, so I'm patiently waiting. I've come to the conclusion that there's not too much I can do about what happens in my life, as far as the bigger things anyway, so I've decided to just let the chips fall where they may and enjoy myself in the meantime, so if you've had any questions to ask me about myself, I hope that works as an answer for you.
If you didn't care about it, then why are you reading my blog? HAH! Yep, gotcha there.

In other news, my brother just got an XBOX 360 complete with Halo 3 and borrowed Guitar Hero 2 from a friend.

Beat Halo pretty quickly, it's pretty cool, multiplayer is great as always.

Guitar Hero is proving to be a new addiction, as well as being fun for the whole family. My finger's haven't had such a good workout since I started trying to learn to type at 120 WPM. It also makes me feel just a tiny bit sad that I never learned to play guitar for real, because if the real thing is as fun as this, then well I missed out.

Anyway that's about it for me, if you've got anything you'd like to say leave a comment, if not then this is the part where you stop reading.

Life Lesson #431

2008-03-19T20:36:00.001-05:00

Feel like messing with your computer's BIOS? Don't.

You might find that you're computer will suddenly shut down and not turn back on.

(Lesson's learned)
1. It's not smart to mess with things you know little about.

2. Turning off the power to your computer and then taking out the CMOS battery on you're motherboard will reset you're BIOS to factory settings thereby fixing anything you may have messed up as you were messing with the settings.

Yeee Haw!

2008-02-10T19:29:00.000-06:00

I got my Driver's license. YES! And about time too. Just thought I would let you all know that. By the way, this counts as an update.

Cruise Part 2

2008-01-12T11:22:00.000-06:00

Well I was thinking of not even posting this, because I got a lot of flak for going on a cruise last year. (Something about wasting the Lords Money) But it looks like for the Fiesta home Cruising is becoming an annual event. So I'm leaving today, in a few hours, for San Diego, California, which means (as close as we can tell) "A whale's Vagina". Scholars maintain that the actual interpretation has been lost for thousands of years.

Anyway, the cruise ship leaves tomorrow, January 13th, at 4:00 P.M., and it goes to Cabo, Mazatlan, and Puerta Vallarta. So wish me luck, and Godspeed.

On a side note, I've been hearing a lot of complaints lately about Windows Vista. Many people are shouting the praises of XP which is getting service pack 3, and going on about how terrible Vista is as an operating system. My answer to that is simple. I use Windows Vista and it works fine for me, but if you need further proof of how kick-butt it is simply log onto any computer with Windows Vista installed, click on the "Start Menu" and go to the tab on the side that says "Games". You will notice there, that any game you have installed on your computer will appear as an icon in the folder. The cool part, is that the icon is actuallythe box art for the game. See, didn't I tell you it was awesome??

Sorry

2007-12-15T21:44:00.000-06:00

I'm not the kind of guy that usually writes sappy posts, and I don't think I'm gonna be starting that trend any time soon, but if I'm known for anything I would like to say it's unpredictability. I know that's probably not true, most ppl can read me like an open book, but hey as long as I'm convinced in my own mind.

Anyway back to the issue at hand. I just wanted to apologize. To everyone. Everyone I've ever talked to, everyone I've ever met, everyone I've ever known. I'm sorry for all the crap you've seen from me. I'm sorry that you've had to give up so much of your time putting up with me. I'm sorry that I'm so selfish. I'm sorry for being annoying. I'm sorry for being so proud. I'm sorry for being as loving as I should have been. I'm sorry I made you angry. I'm sorry I made you cry. I'm sorry I made you bitter. I'm sorry I tore down your faith.
And to the one in particular, the one who I've let down the most, the one who really truly cares, the one that's given the most to me, that I've given the least to in return. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry I was angry at you. I'm sorry I blamed you. I'm sorry I lost faith in you. I'm sorry I stopped speaking to you. I'm sorry I turned my back on you.

I want to thank you for not giving up on me. I want to thank you for not giving me more than I could take. I want to thank you for making me the way I am, for teaching me patience, for teaching me humility, for teaching me perseverance, for teaching me rising above.

I want to thank certain individuals in particular for putting up with me. I want to thank certain people that made me feel like they loved me, in spite of myself. Despite the fact that I'm an obnoxious ginger kid with nothing positive to say and a bleak and cynical outlook on life. Despite the fact that I'm a wet blanket, that I tear down more than I build up, that I sow disunity more than love, thank you. Thank you for not giving up on me. Why you haven't is a mystery, you could've taken the easy way out and just ignored me, but for some reason you still choose to love me, and for that I thank you. The more I get to know me, the less I like me, but for some of you have known me for a pretty long time, and for some reason you can still put up with me. For some reason you still hug me and smile, and your face lights up when you see me. For some reason you make me happy, for some reason you understand the different trials I go through and you make it seem less significant. Don't know why, but you have.
I wish I could name particular names here, but I know none of these people would want me putting their names in lights. If you take the time to read this blog, one of those people is probably you.

Thank you.

2007-12-11T23:18:00.001-06:00

FRICKEN' 'TARDED BLOG!

2007-12-11T23:16:00.000-06:00

STUPID BLOG!

Whoaaaaa!

2007-11-25T17:57:00.000-06:00

Wowww....You know that feeling you get when you know something is seriously wrong with your life, but you don't know what it is.

Meditate on this I will.

Look it's a new post!

2007-11-16T22:13:00.001-06:00

I think my problem with posting in the past is that I have been trying to tell everyone stuff that has happened recently. Instead I should just be rambling on about nonsense, whatever it takes to make the mob happy.
Another problem I think I have with my blog is that I don't post enough pictures.

Rambling off what's happened over the last few months should be enough, but no, like any good mob you all want a story. You want to squeeze my brain and juice it for every last drop of wit and inspiration that you can pull out of it.
The fact is that the reason I don't post often is because posting involves writing, something I've been avoiding for the past year or so.
Back in the day I used to write alot. It used to be one of the things I enjoy. I guess I still enjoy it, but not nearly as much. Nothing cool enough to write about. The only thing I'm really, really, knowledgeable about is me, and who wants to hear about me? I don't even wanna hear about me. HEY LOOK ANOTHER PICTURE!!!!

What I do want you all to know is that even though I never write on this dead and dying blog, I still want to feel connected to the world in some way. I still want everyone to know that I have a voice, even if I rarely use it.
(Ok I was trying to sound deep there, didn't quite come across right)

Some people say I need to just start doing more, start reaching a little higher, to which I respond with pictures like this...

As you can see by that picture I'm reaching quite high. Ok so maybe they were speaking metaphorically, I can never tell the difference. But those rock climbing pics are kinda cool, how bout a few more??

Well that's enough for pictures. I've gotta go shower, but look! I posted pictures!!!

New Stuff

2007-10-01T22:05:00.000-05:00

Guess what ya'll? I got me a new computer. Desktop, paid 400 for it, but I have a bunch of accessories for it that aren't really mine but that I can use for it. Like dual monitors, speakers, mouse, keyboard, desk, swiveling chair on wheels. All that Jazz. It's pretty nice. These are the specs.

Windows Vista

AMD Athalon64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3600+ 1.91 GHZ

1 GB RAM (Will soon upgrade to 3 GB's)

160 GB Hard Drive 7200 RPM's

nVidia GeForce 7600 256 MB Graphics card

450 Watt Power Supply

In other news, I also made a new music video while Ben was visiting. I can't really put it up because Phil is in it and his mom doesn't want me posting video's online if he's in it. But if you want to see it leave a comment and ask me.
Oh ya, it's called "Wildcats".

Been Busy

2007-09-07T19:20:00.000-05:00

Been busy. Alot to do. The YA's all left for the XD. Still don't have my new computer, can't post pictures. Don't worry I should get it soon.
Considering taking down this blog. It's kind of lame sometimes, especially when you spend hours writing a particuarly long post, and only get 2 comments.
My younger brother is coming to visit for a few weeks, trying to get him hooked up somewhere in the Family.
Other thoughts...attempting to learn spanish (don't have much time though). Fluxuating between drinking and not drinking coffee, making me always tired and on a downer.
Had insomnia for the past 3 or 4 weeks, getting 3-5 hours of sleep a night and then trying to work for 8 hours is not easy, especially when it's consistant.
Getting tired of not having a ministry, need to do something I enjoy. This is why I need to get my computer, wanna start working on something productive that I actually want to do.
Pray for me, I have no drive, forward movement is such a difficult thing for me. Apotheon and Lethargy keep pestering me.
I've done something productive lately though, I've been re-writing a few songs (Finished re-writing "Death Music" now called "Stem's Music", working on "Diplomat". No title yet.) Dinner time, I'm hungry, going now.

Guess who's back? Back again! Jesse's back! Tell a friend!

2007-08-17T23:35:00.000-05:00

Whoo Hoo! It's terrible! I feel so sad! I'm back from the FDTP. Yes I needed to get back for alot of different reasons, but it still just feels bad to leave all my friends behind. Now i'm not gonna fart around with my own words about the camp. Let me tell you just what it was all about in the words of the JT Board.

FDTP 2007 for North America/Mexico/Central America

Creel,Chihuahua,Mexico
July 16th to August 15th

Who was there? 56 Attendees (36 girls/ 20 boys) 22 Staff

75 Classes, Workshops, and Study Times (note from Jesse: At 1 and a half hours for each class that translates into 112 and a half hours of classes which were mostly word based)

30 Evening activities, Game nights, Dance nights, ect.

2 hours of sports every day from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

3 Excursions (including a sleep in and a full day off) to:
Divisadero Copper Canyon View (The Copper Canyon in Creel is 4 times larger than the Grand Canyon, I'll put a picture up);
Valley of the Monks (where we did rappelling and Rock Climbing, I'll talk more about that later);
Hot springs (The water was very warm and there were some awsome rocks to climb, although not with harnesses so it wasn't technically allowed);
Cuzarare Waterfall (Don't know the exact details but it was like 100-200 feet high, i'll put pictures of this up also).

Other points: It rained almost every day, and we had to wash our clothes by hand.

Now I'll go into more personal details about the FDTP and if you stay long enough to read the entire post you'll be treated to some pictures!! YAY!

Ok well for starters this was my first time in Mexico. About 20 teens from the states drove to the border in the Wordstock bus and spent the night in a campground on the American side. I was part of this group. The next day we crossed the border in a motor home, which we had also taken, and the group seperated. Half of us drove to Creel in the motorhome (I was with that group) and the other half went on a bus.
As I said before it rained almost every day there. Other than that the weather was really nice. It was cool in the mornings and evenings, warm/hot in the afternoons and because of the altitude there wern't alot of annoying bugs or anything. By the way the altitude was 7500 feet about sea level, just incase you didn't know.
My team consisted of 8 people who some of you probably know.
Peter Story (Team Shepherd)
Phil (from Guad; He had to leave halfway through the camp)
Phil Edson
Mike Paone
Nico (Clara's younger brother)
Eric
Mark
Me

I can hardly explain most of it so i'm only talking about some of my more favorite points. One of which was the rock climbing. (Editors note: If your name is David Paone or Benjamin Bruni you may be highly interested in these next few paragraphs)

Rock climbing was on the agenda every day for get out, but quickly died down as not too many people had the guts or the desire to climb every day.
Out of the 56 attendee's I was one of the maybe 3 or 4 enthusiasts. I didn't go every single day but I went enough and did enough to make a name for myself.
The rocks we were climbing wern't very high, but since I have never climbed on actual rocks before and with all the proper gear it was still definetly exciting. I learned all the terminology, learned how to climb properly, and learned how to lead climb.
There were about 5 different climbing courses and 1 bouldering course. They ranged in difficulty and we each started on easy ones. I quickly found that for some reason I was better at this sport than most, as I could climb up and come back down in the time that most people had only gotten halfway. I didn't find it hard, although sometimes coming down was scary. The reason for this was because in order to come down you have a person (called a belayer) who lets you down. It's not dangerous but if the belayer spaces out and lets go of the rope then you go falling down (this happend to me on one occasion).
The first day I went climbing I dislodged a rock and nearly fell because of it. The rock was about a foot wide and almost hit my belayer and a few other people below. From that point on I started playing it a bit more safe and going slower. After a while I got better at it and I did every climb a few times. Only a handful of people made it up the hardest climb, thankfully I was one of those few.
Once we started getting better at it and less people started coming our instructor let us try out lead climbing. This is where you go and set the rope up. The danger in this is that if you fall, instead of only falling a few inches before you get stopped by the rope, you fall several meters to the last place you've clipped in.
I started out by lead climbing the easiest one and found it to be pretty easy. I continued on and finally I was challenged to lead climb the hardest one. (Nobody else except the instructor had lead climbed the hardest one. One of the staff had tried but fallen and the instructor had to finish the climb)
Although the instructor (Tony) assured me that I would probably fall, I told him I'd like to give it a try anyway. I did and by the grace of god I made it all the way up, hooked up the rope, and didn't fall. I didn't fall a single time on any climb, thank you Lord. Afterwards I went back up a second time and took the rope down. I have some pictures of this I'm gonna put up.

There was also a Volleyball tournament which I entered. My team ranked 2nd place (we were 1 point shy of first place). Other than that there were the usual sports. I would write more but I still wanna upload pictures and it's super late, so I'm going to sign off now. Love you all, hope to hear from you soon!

GAH!!! I'm sorry, I'm going to save this post and post it later. I just realized that my CD of pictures is actually a DVD and this computer has a CD drive and not a DVD drive so it can't read my CD.

(Disclaimer) After about a week of this being a draft and me looking for a computer with a DVD drive, and time to post, I've come up empty handed. So no pics. Sorry. Here's the post tho.

See you in a month!

2007-07-13T19:56:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, I don't think too many people even read this blog because I rarely ever post, but I am here to say that I am not gonna post for an even longer period of time. I am going to the FDTP which is going to be held in Chihuahua, Mexico for a month. Including travel time I will be gone for about 33 days. The camp is a training camp for 17 year olds to become disciples. Anyway gotta run. See you all in a month!

Rainbow Gathering

2007-07-07T11:52:00.000-05:00

Oh thank god for computers. It's so nice to be back home again, sitting at a computer. Babylon the Whore, how great is thy technology. How excellent are thy showers? Can I describe the intracasies of a fully functional flushable shitter?
So this probably dosn't make much sense to you does it? You see, It just dawned on me that if I have any readers left they probably are left with the feeling that I don't ever do anything interesting because I rarely ever post. But far to the contrary. In fact just about a month ago I went on this swell 4 day road trip I never wrote anything about.
A few weeks ago I used a jackhammer for the first time and had one of the hardest and longest working days I've ever experienced.
And Just lastnight I got home from "The Rainbow Gathering". Which was by far one of the most interesting experiences ever. Let me elaborate...

The Fiesta home considers the Rainbow Gathering a home event. Therefore the home was completely behind our desicion to go this year. Justin, Myself, Paz, Johnny, and Marvy made up the road team going. We left on Tuesday the 26th of June, heading towards Houston. Our plan was to meet up with the prophet bus team, load up our stuff and we would all ride up to the Ozark National Forest in Arkansas for the Rainbow Gathering.
We got to Houston on tuesday afternoon and spent the night at the Prophet Bus home, waiting for their bus to get repaired as it had been put in the shop a few days prior.
Unfortunatly by wednesday afternoon it was determined that the bus would not be ready, so we loaded up our stuff into two different trucks, and we caravaned out of there at 3:00 A.M. on Thursday Morning. We had a long pretty uneventful trip.
The Gathering turned out to be completely different than those in the past. This has been the General layout of most gatherings in the past. As you drive in you will enter what is known as "Bus Village". This is usually a massive meadow with a several mile radius, in which thousands of cars will park. Somewhere at the end of this "Bus Village" is what is known as "Main Trail" which leads several miles (often through forest) and eventually lets out at the site. The site is typically a huge wide open area, several miles in diameter, where everyone sets up camp in different locations.
Rainbow Gathering 2007 was very, very different. As we drove up we first noticed that there was no Bus Village, just cars parked along the side of the road for miles and miles. Fortunately we were able to find a spot that was fairly close to main trail. The Rangers (which at the gathering are affectionatly known as "Six Up") wouldn't let us drive our trucks down main trail to unload our stuff, we had of course been expecting this, which is why Justin had spent several days before the gathering building a cart to help haul our stuff in.
This turned out to be one of the most usefull tools of the entire gathering. The Main trail down to the site was about a mile and half long, but down hill the entire way, as we were basically going down a mountain side.
Once we started getting close the trail (which at first was heavily packed dirt) turned into thick sloshy mud. We got to the river, our cart weighed down with probably close to 1000 pounds of stuff, and it was decided that we would use every available body to lift the cart and carry it through the river. This turned out to work quite effectivly and soon we were deep in rainbow country.
Different than all other previous gatherings, there was no open meadow in which people set up their camps. All there was for this gathering was trails and woods. We were deep in the National forest and there wasn't an open area to be seen for miles around. Every camp had been built into the woods using the trees and landscape. We found a spot to sleep for the night, and roped off the future site of our camp.
(Editors Note: Although this all sounds easy, it should be duly noted that half the team was incredibly sick. I myself had the worst headache I've ever had and felt on several occasions as if I was going to throw up. All the while we had to continue working and continue trying to carry heavy equipment through thick mud trails.)
Friday morning we navigated the muddy trails (the mud was about 1 foot deep so after each step you would have to yank your foot back out of the mud because it would get stuck.) towards our new campsite and began to setup. By that evening we had our main tarp up, logs for sitting, a fire pit, a shitter, and a kitchen all set up. All of this had been done using the natural landscape and location of the trees to our own advantage. Sometime around this time the team from California arrived. We now had nearly 20 people. Five from our home, (whom I have already named), Six from Houston, these were; Chris, Jaz, Marianne, Devon, Jamie, and Sara. The Team from California brought an additonal 7 people; Bill, Tori, Stephanie, Hicky, Sonia, Crystal, and Lisa.
The next few days all became a blur. Nobody had watches so it was hard to keep track of time and even keeping track of the days became difficult. Sometime during this time family members came from Austin, and left a few days later, more from Houston as well.
Every night we were have singing by the campfire, singing everyones favorite family songs, and Chris and Jaz became quite popular for their anti-war/pro revoloution songs. This was my first rainbow gathering, and all the hardcore rainbows who had been there several times before assured me that this was by far the most difficult one.
All in all we eneded up staying a week at the gathering. We met some interesting people we witnessed to, one of which ended up going to San Diego with the California team.
It was interesting the way people would just hang out at your camp all day. If they liked you and your camp they would stay and hang out. They would help with work and stuff and just listen to devotions, eat our meals, listen to our songs, help us work. Very Very inspiring.
We just got back home lastnight (Friday the 6th). Today is now 7/7/07 quite a landmark day. I need to go now but I might write more about it later.

"Had to let you go"

2007-06-19T20:34:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so I had to take down, the video blog. I would explain all the reasons involved but just suffice it to say that someone didn't want it to be up anymore. Someone with the power to be able to ask me to take it down. So yeah I had to take down philsvideos.
Maybe in the future i'll be able to figure out some way to put up new videos, not that I even have any at the moment, but what the future holds none can say.

Computer

2007-06-08T18:44:00.000-05:00

Well I was reminded that I should post something new, but there isn't a whole lot of new stuff going on. We finished the inside of the studio we're building. Except for putting carpet in. We still have to do that, but otherwise it's done on the inside.
Anyway, I'm trying to get a computer. I want to get into video filming and editing, so I need to get a pretty decent computer to do editing on. Needless to say I don't really have quite enough money. I'm looking for parts online so I can build it myself. This is cheaper and ensures that I get exactly what I want. But yeah, I'm coming up a little short as far as money goes. I'll find a way to get it eventually, but in the process I'm learning a lot about computers. I'm learning about the hardware and how it's all put together, and I'm learning what all those dang annoying acronyms mean. Like GDDR2 or GDDR3, as well as the difference between a nVidia GeForce7600 256MB GDDR2 as apposed to a nVidia GeForcce8600 256MB GDDR3. Yeah, all that technical stuff.
Luckily alotta ppl in this home know about computer hardware, so they are explaining it to me.
Anyway, it's dinner time so I gotta run, but hey if you feel charitable and wanna help me get some parts for it let me know, or (since most of you need money just as much as I do) if you know a place where I can get some good computer parts for a good price let me know.

New Blog

2007-05-24T14:59:00.000-05:00

Hey I made a new blog for uploading videos. Most of these video's are made by Phil but I made a few myself check it out http://philsvideos.blogspot.com. That's philsvideos.blogspot.com

Musicians

2007-05-05T20:47:00.000-05:00

DANG RACKET!!!

Stem, Metanoya, and Francesco are at my house right now. Staying here before wordstock starts. Right now like 4 of them are in a drum circle banging on them darn toms and bongo's and jimbays and are making a wondrous racket.
Still despite the noise you have to be appreciative because...hey, it's Stem and Metanoya!!
I've basically met like every cool band in the family now. I haven't met Fool Moon or Spirit Tree, but I don't really care to. They weren't even cool enough to come to wordstock.
So right now Steve McNair is going kinda like..."boo doom doom BAP, boo boo boo doom doom BAP!" and Mike Drummer is going like boo doo doo doo DAP! Boo doo doo doo DAP! And one of those metanoyans (oli I think) is going dee bap, dee bap, dee bap, dee bap!

Ok do I have your attention? Good, because you'll all get a chance to meet them at wordstock. Of course I get to spend quality time with them all and you all don't. One thing I've realized is how different the rest of the world is. Most of these guys have never been to America, so we've been schooling them in the ways of the greatest country on earth. It's pretty neat. Just lastnight the guys from Stem all went out to...guess where.....WAL-MART!! Yeah, that was a "night on the town" for sure. None of them had ever been to Wal-Mart before. It was pretty darn funny. I've never met a person who's never been to Wal-Mart before.
I'm also learning alotta new things about musicians, for example, musicians can sit around for HOURS and HOURS on end talking about music. And they LOVE IT!! They could do it all their lives and not get bored. Kinda makes me glad I was the one person in my family that chose a different path than music. On the other hand if I were a musician I would get a whole heck of alot more pum, and not only that but I think I could be a musician if I ever put my mind to it.
Everyone here is getting like a good education in brown-nosing, it's pretty great. Anyway, all this to say that the musicians have been reviewed and observed by a normal average American Joe, and I am giving them a thumbs up! They are clean folks, they are good normal wholesome people. A bit eccentric but all musicians are, so I give you all permission to worship them!!

Ironic Tragedy

2007-04-27T22:42:00.000-05:00

Here's a bit of irony for you, I want you to think of the most tragicly ironic thing that has ever happened to you and see if it compares to this. Let me explain...

Last year the only thing I did besides childcare, was handyman stuff. I put up drywall, I taped and floated, I sanded, I textured, I painted, I helped put in carpet padding and carpet, I did alot of painting. So what could be more ironic than losing all that work (approximately 4 months).
See, I was in houston for like a week visitng my sister before she went to the P.I. and over the weekend I came back in order to help fundraise. I spent friday with Jer ballooning. Jer and Mila live in San Antonio and come back to Houston in order to fundraise on friday-sunday. During those nights they sleep in their old house in Houston, but Sunday Night thru Friday they don't see the Houston House. So it was that we came to the Houston house on friday at like 2 in the morning having not been there since sunday morning the week before. As we approach the door we see water on the ground outside...."that's weird" I think. The door opens and there is water on the floor..."uh oh" I think "someone must have left the faucet on for a few days". I continue to think this until I see a piece of drywall from the ceiling laying on the floor and water leaking through the roof. The damage continues upstairs. The carpet in a few upstairs rooms are soaked to the bone and the ceiling there has fallen as well. It turns out the hot water heater in the attic had broken and had leaked water for 4 days. The next day emergency crews came and tore out the baseboard in 2 rooms, the ceiling in 3 rooms, the sheetrock walls in 2 rooms, the carpet in 3 rooms. All of these things I had spent 4 months fixing up. Painting rooms, texturing, painting baseboard, putting in carpet, even putting in ceiling sheetrock.
So in summary, with one tiny act of god, 4 months of my life was wasted. Well not wasted, I learned alot, but all that I produced in that time sure was wasted.

Anyhow, boring read I know, but it means alot to me. Just thot I'd mention it.

Just a thing about Libra's

2007-04-11T23:33:00.000-05:00

I was chatting with someone, actually I still am chatting with them. Just wanted to share with ya'll what she told me.

Anonymous girl: yeah one thing i've learned is that Libras are always right

Well, just think about that for a little while.

I'd Also like to say Happy Birthday to Ruthie, who turns 18 today. She's been a pretty swell friend for about 4 years now. Pretty darn long time. I remember when I first started talking to her she tried to sell me a pair of old used rollerblades and I thot that was so incredibly nerdy.
But she's still pretty cool. Love you Ruthie, happy birthday.

Sorry

2007-03-29T19:29:00.000-05:00

Hey sorry I havn't posted in so long, I havn't really had internet access lately and whenever I get a chance to get on blogging isn't usually the first thing on my mind. I guess I should let you guys know what happened the rest of the cruise.

Days 6 and 7

It's been so long it's hard to recount events in detail anymore, but I remember that on the way back Kevin won a crossdressing contest, Haven won a "American Idol" type contest, and it got consistantly colder as we got closer to texas. Yeah, can't think of anything more specific.

In other news we had a match meeting finally, it had been a full year since the last one. It was really great to see people again. Lots of things are going on.
I'm trying to save up some money to get a Desktop computer cuz I want to get into film editing. I would like to get into filming also but I can use other people's equipment for that, the bigger requirement is to have a computer to practice editing on. Anyway, I have some money set aside towards it but money is pretty hard to come by around here, so if the lord lays it on your heart to donate anything towards that, it'd be pretty awsome. I'm just...you know, throwing that out there as a "what if?".
In other news we had a flood recently. It was amazing, it was pouring down rain, and we had a river flowing down the path we normally walk in-between houses on. We had a four foot river flowing where the day before there was nothing. It was quite amazing, I'd put up pictures but alas, I have none. Anyway I have to run. Sorry about my absence

Day 5

2007-02-21T14:10:00.000-06:00

Day 5: Wednesday, Belize City, Belize.

By the time I woke up we had already arrived, (got up at noon tho) and people were offloading and heading ashore. We didn't dock like last time, this time we had to take a ferry to the mainland and we anchored off the coast.
I decided to figure out my day over a hearty breakfast. Unfortunately despite their many advertisement about mealtimes being 24 hours a day, you don't find breakfast anywhere after noon. So I resorted to eating lunch instead. I decided to go with Phil and his parents to an island off the coast of Belize instead of going to the actual city. In a way I didn't really want to because I had just done the whole beach thing yesterday, and now I wanted to explore a forigen country. But since I had nobody to go to the mainland with I decided to stick with Phil for now. True to my libran nature I had a change of mind when we met up with Maggie and Abby who were going to the city. Phil had been to Belize city before and didn't want to go, but I decided to go with the girls instead.
(In order to understand the rest of this post you have to realize that before this I had never left the country, the things I say about this place I say from the perspective of a full 100% American having never left the country he was born in)
If you want to see some pictures from Belize check out Ambie's Blog. We took the ferry to the docks, and so far things seemed pretty normal. It was rather tourist oriented since so many tourists stop in this area. This certainly wasn't what I was expecting.
We headed into a large gift shop that had a back door which served as an entrance into the city. I thought it was insanely cool that several armed guards watched the door. The second we stepped through it actually felt like we had stepped into another country. We were swarmed by locals all offering us something, particualarly taxi's. We put on our best, "we're not stupid tourists" face and, drawing from the information of various movies portraying third world countries to guide us, headed down the street into the city.
Several others afterwards were very dissapointed in Belize mostly because of how grubby everything was. I myself thought it was amazing. Every street and building was 3 or 4 times more run down than the dirtiest ghetto I'd ever seen. The locals were dirty, sweaty, their clothes were stained and torn. I guess I would've felt bad for most of them, if they hadn't been trying to rip me off. One woman in particular got on my nerves. She insisted that I braid my hair in little Belizian braids. (This was after I had cut it by the way) I politely told her no, but she wouldn't give up, after all 3 of us had said no at least 10 times, she said "I'll wait until you come back", and left. A little ways down we met up with Linda who was having a great time playing tourist. Not too much else happened there in Belize. We walked around the city, me oohing and ahhing over all things dirty and poor, and the girls spending a buttload on knick knacks and other random junk. This is not to say that I wouldn't have spent any money, (I didn't of course) but that is only because I had only 1 dollar to my name and as you remember was already in debt to Phil.
After about 3 hours of walking around we'd had enough, and decided to head back to the ship. On the way back we met up with several other people, and ran into the hair braiding lady again. She was more persistant than ever this time, in her ranting that we needed authentic Belizian braids in our hair. The conversation went something like this.
BRAID LADY: Common hunny, you look so pretty with these braids in your hair, you really need to git them.

JESSE: No thanks, not interested.

BRAID LADY: It's real cheap, only 10 dollahs for yo' entiah head, I give you good price because you have such pretty hair.

JESSE: Thanks but I don't want them.

BRAID LADY: Common you gonna impress all ya friends with authentic Belzian braids in your hair.

JESSE: I don't think my friends would appreciate that.

BRAID LADY: You don't like braided hair? I do it like, ya know, rows in ya' hair.

JESSE: You mean cornrows?

BRAID LADY: Yea' those, corn rows.

JESSE: Dear God.

BRAID LADY: So whadda ya say baby?

JESSE: Absoloutly not.

BRAID LADY: Ya don't like corn rows?

JESSE: I don't think those would look good on me.

BRAID LADY: Truss' me dah'lin they look beautifool on you!

JESSE: No they look ghetto on me.

BRAID LADY: Ya don' like the style?

JESSE: Not on a white guy like me no.

BRAID LADY: Just do the braids hunny.

(at this point I noticed a t-shirt hanging on the wall of a small kiosk {the lady had followed us to another shop in an attempt to sell us on her idea} which read...
NO I don't want a Taxi

NO I don't want my Hair Braided

NO I don't want a Coconut

NO I don't want a tour of the city

NO I don't want weed

BELIZE

I laughed and pointed to the shirt on the wall to which the lady replied?

BRAID LADY: You wan' the T-shirt insted of mah' awsome braids?

JESSE: No I don't want either one, I'm trying to get you to take a hint "NO I don't want my hair braided".

BRAID LADY: Ahhh hunny, ya' know iss gonna look excellent on ya'.

JESSE: I DON'T WAN'T MY HAIR BRAIDED, I THINK IT'S A VERY UGLY GHETTO LOOK AND THE LAST THING I WANT IS YOUR GRUBBY FINGERS TOUCHING MY HAIR, NOW LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!

BRAID LADY: You change ya' mind you come see me hunny.

After this the braid lady walked off and started pestering Maggie and Abby. I think their conversations went the same way.

Nothing else really interesting happened that day until dinner time. It was late and alot of people had already eaten, so us younger guys decided to go to Phil's room and have a "Room Service Party". I took orders for about 10 minutes (there were 6 of us eating) and then asked for this...
6 Waters
3 Milks
3 Iced Teas
2 Coffees
8 Pizza's
2 Fruit Plates
1 Ceaser Salad
6 Chocolate Moose's
10 Brownies
10 Cookies
and 1 Grilled Cheese Sandwich

The guy told me that he couldn't give me any more than 4 pizza's, but he ended up giving us 12 brownies and 12 cookies too.
We gorged, but the sweets ended up tasting awful, way too sweet. So much was wasted.

Day 4

2007-02-12T13:57:00.000-06:00

Day 4: Tuesday: Cozumel, Mexico.

Day four started bright and early at 7:30 P.M or something like that anyway. Most of us had signed up for an offshore deal at a beach on Cozumel. The deal was 27 dollars for unlimited food, drinks (including alcoholic), snorkeling, kyaking, volleyball, and windsurfing. They also had 3 swimming pools, a restaurant, and various games.
Originally I had planned to not go for monetary reasons, but Phil loaned me the money, so I got to go to this thing and now I owe Phil a months allowance!
So like I said, we got up at around 7:30 and everyone was getting together and preparing to go off. By about 8:30 roughly 10 of us got off the boat. Immidiately 6 of them turned back to the boat because it was lightly raining and the entire sky was overcast. "We'll go later if it clears up", they said. Well after waiting for more people to arrive for nearly an hour, we had enough people to head to the beach. Ten of us hopped in a few taxi's and headed to this beach resort.
It wasn't till about 10:00 that we finally got checked in and our beach vacation began. We started with a prayer that the weather would improve, because nobody likes rain and no sun on a beach. We ate a delicious breakfast at the restaurant and waited. After no more than 30 minutes of praying the sky was perfectly clear and the sun was shining through beautifully.
We began our fun and excitement with kiyaking around in the ocean, which wasn't difficult by any means, but was not quite so easy as I thought it would be. I capsized probably 10 times.
A little past noon the rest of the group arrived. Out of the 26 of us on the boat only 5 didn't show up. The rest of the day was spent eating, drinking and swimming.
I tried a little bit of snorkeling but gave up for two reasons. The first was that rather than a sandy beach, we were at a rocky beach, and there were alot of big rocks under the water making it difficult to get to deeper water where there were no rocks. The second reason was when I finally got out to deeper water and took a peek in, the first thing I saw was a stingray buried in the sand. I thought it might have been a flounder at first but when I saw the tail whip up I was pretty certain of what it was. Needless to say I got out of there pretty fast. If it weren't for the Steve Irwin incident I probably would've continued snorkeling but after that, I honestly didn't want to take any chances.
This probably turned out to be the best day of the entire cruise. I had a ton of fun, soaking up sun, and sipping as many virgin drinks as I wanted. Despite Mexico's awesome drinking age of 18...I still don't qualify for that yet. But the 18-20 year olds certainly enjoyed the opportunty. They even had a drinking contest in which one of our party (who shall remain anonymous for his own sake) entered and, to nobody's surprise, won!
We left the beach at about 5 o' clock and the ship left port an hour later.
One interesting thing I noticed was that at this port we obviously weren't the only cruise ship there, but what I noticed most was that ours was without a doubt the smallest one. It stands to reason though, because of the cheap price and the fact that this would be the last trip this particular ship would go on, that it wouldn't be the best ship in the fleet. In fact it was their oldest and smallest ship. But I'm not complaining because it was still the largest ship I've ever been on.
Later on that night five of us had dinner at the "Terraces". My first night of the cruise eating at a restaurant other than the "Trattoria". This turned out to be a pretty amusing dinner for 4 of us, and probably the worst dinner of the cruise for one of us. Maybe I choose my company poorly, but one of the guys I was eating with has a special kinship with hats. Which is a nice way of saying he never takes his hat off. Of course one of the things they ask at a restaurant like this is to take your hat off. So as he's seating us the waiter asks...this guy (who is still nameless) if he could take his hat off. Of course he does, but only for about 2 minutes, when he gets bored and puts it back on.
So the five of us are sitting there, laughing and having a good time, for at least half an hour, when a grumpy old man who was eating alone approaches our table. This is what followed...
OLD GUY to HAT BOY: You know I've been watching you all and I'm appalled and disgusted by your lack of respect you are showing by wearing your hat in this restaurant, and I want you to take it off right now if you wouldn't mind.

HAT BOY: Just curious, Why?

OLD GUY: It's something called manners, and if you don't have manners than you don't belong on this ship or any other ship.

Now if it weren't for the fact that the old guy was technically right, and that we were trying to be a good Christian missionary sample, I would've told this old man to take his salad fork and stick it where the sun don't shine because of the rude approach he used. Fortunately we all kept our cool, and Hat boy calmly removed his hat. That was the last night he ate at a fancy restaurant.

Day 2 and 3

2007-02-11T15:08:00.000-06:00

Day 2: Sunday: At Sea.

The second day started when any good day should. Noon. That's around the time I woke up and got to the Sports Bar Buffet for breakfast.
Truth be told the days spent on the ship are mostly a blur to me. It was pretty hard to tell what happened one day and what happened on a different day. I'll try to keep things as accurate as possible but there won't be so many details on the days at sea as there will on the day's we were at port.
One thing that stands out in my mind about the second day was how choppy the sea was. At the end of the cruise the captain told everyone that these first few days were the worst weather they had all season. I remember at least two instances where all the plates and glasses in the restaurants actually fell off the tables.
As a result of this unfortunate weather most of our crew was sick and spent a majority of the day in bed. I was lucky to be one of the few people that didn't suffer from this motion sickness.
If you've been following my little dates you would also notice that it was Sunday. And not just any Sunday, Superbowl Sunday. So this is where I will add my super special SUPERBOWL SUNDAY SPORTS SPECTACULAR!!!
Let me start first things first. Remember what I said abut all that bad weather? Well if you've ever had satellite TV you know just how much it is affected by the weather. They played the Superbowl on the main stage using a projector machine. Unfortunately there was very few places to sit so instead of going with the big group me and one other guy went alone. The opening kickoff was a beauty, and the 80 yard return for a touchdown by the Chicago Bears was even more so. Unfortunately I didn't get to actually see this happen because the TV went out. Yes, I saw the football being kicked, and next thing I saw the score was 6-0 and Bears fans were screaming their brains out. This happened several times during the game.
The majority of the boat were Bears fans, and I being a Colts fan often found myself cheering alone or booing alone. After the first quarter I went up to the sports bar and finished the game with the rest of the football fans in our home, most of which were rooting for the Colts as well, so I felt a bit more comfortable. I felt extremely comfortable when the Colts won also. Manning deserved it, and I'm glad he's finally got a Superbowl victory under his belt.

We finished the night with a dinner at the Italian place, the Trattoria. This was my second night eating at this restaurant, not by my own choice however. You see, in order to eat dinner at a nice place you would have to make a reservation at a nice place, and nobody wants to make a reservation alone. Since all the people I had been hanging out with before (the few other teens in our crew) were all in bed moaning from sea sickness, I decided to go around and find out if anyone wanted to eat dinner with me. Fortunately I didn't have to do that too much because I found out that Steve had made a reservation at the Trattoria for 10 people and it was on a first come first serve basis. So I got over to that and ate dinner with nine others who were lucky enough to not get seasick.
Although dinner often signals the end of a day on a cruise ship, during vacation, ending a night so early would be utter madness. Unfortunately for me there was very little to do. After around 10:00 nothing really happens on the ship, the pools and Jacuzzis, sauna, and steam room are all closed so there is nothing else to do but hang out. But as I mentioned several times before, most people were sick, and those that weren't had a knack for hiding as, after dinner, I was unable to find any of them.
So I went back into my room, pulled out Joe's PSP, (which he had been kind enough to loan me a few days prior) and watched the movie "Stealth". After that I was plenty tired, and fell asleep.

Day 3. Monday. Progresso, Mexico.
CANCELLED!!

This was the first big let down of our trip. Unfortunately due to the 60 MPH winds, and terrible weather, the port at Progresso had been closed. The captain informed everyone on the intercom that if they had docked they would be a permanent hotel on the beach of Progresso, so that meant another full day at sea as we steamed on towards Cozumel.
Although it seems like an awful way to start the day it actually turned out to be pretty good. The sea's calmed down a bit that day, and most of the sick had risen from their beds brand new and healthy.
INTERESTING TIDBIT: I just wanted to point out about those 60 MPH winds that I mentioned earlier. Due to those intense winds and the way the ship was sealed up, opening a door to go outside was incredibly difficult. If you have ever tried to open a door with someone else pushing on the other side it would be similar to this. It wasn't impossible to get them open, but when you finally do you feel like yelling at the jerk who was trying to close it on you, only to find that it was simply the wind pushing against the door.
We spent this day doing a whole lot of nothing. I met a very odd guy that looked like he needed to be witnessed too, but I was so disturbed by the way he acted (I think he might have been high at the time) that I didn't. At least not then, a few days later I witnessed to him for a long time, more on that later.
This was also the first day I tried the sauna and the steam bath. That was quite something. I felt really clean after that. I ate at the Trattoria for dinner again that night. The third night in a row I'd eaten there. Not my fault again this time. This time a dinner reservation had been made for all 26 of us, and we were expected to show up in our best clothes. My best clothes were pretty casual though, as were most of the guys. Only a few guys dressed up really fancy looking. All the girls looked pretty great though.
Once again there was not so much to do on this night. So I found myself wandering aimlessly around the ship with Phil and Johnny.
We met these girls who had seen my say my name on stage when the magician pulled me up, and were constantly waving to me and screaming out "HI JESSE!!" whenever they saw me. When they said hi again this time I decided to get to know them a bit. I found out they were Mormons, who came all the way from Utah for this cruise. We played a few card games with them and got to know them some, they turned out to be pretty nice people, but a bit to ditzy to really carry on a decent conversation with.

Day 4. Tuesday. Cozumel, Mexico....Coming soon!

I'm all "cruised" out

2007-02-10T16:14:00.000-06:00

Just got back from the fun filled week of cruising. It was oodles of fun. My first time out of the states, and I went to 2 different countries! I'm so happy. I think there's alot to talk about so first things first.

Thing 1: Happy Birthday David, hope you have a great year, sorry it's late.

Thing 2: Happy Birthday Clare, I wish you're birthday wasn't so close to David's, it would mean 1 less "Happy belated birthday" but nevertheless. Happy Belated Birthday!! I'm sure this will be the year for you.

Thing 3: I cut my hair

Thing 4: The Cruise.

This is where I'm gonna talk about the cruise, I'll break it up into a day by day synopsis of what went down, starting of course with...

Day 1. SATURDAY. DEPARTURE. Drove down to La Porte, TX with Jeremy and Kevin to where the cruise was leaving. La Porte is, in the words of one of the ships comedians, "not exactly the part of Texas you want to see. Smokestacks belching out black clouds of pollution as far as the eye can see, lovely brown water, the entoxicating aroma of refined oil." Needless to say it wasn't the best place to launch a cruise ship from.
Once I got on board the first thing I noticed was the smell. For any of you who have ever spent a week at your grandparents you know this smell from a mile away. Yes, folks, this was the scent of senior citizens. An entire boat full of senior citizens. I had no intention of being rude, but I am a man of impulse, and so driven by impulse as I am, the moment my brain processed this information I blurted out loud enough for all my companions (and perhaps the rest of the room) to hear..."Wow! This place reeks of old people!"
I spent majority of what remained in my day exploring the ship, which wasn't as big as I had imagined. I was disappointed about a few things, the "Basketball court" for example, was single basketball hoop with a torn net. Also if you've ever played basketball on the roof of a cruise ship (at least 100 feet up) goin at 30-40 MPH, with a headwind of 60 MPH it can be extremly hard to get the ball to go into the basket.
For the most part however it was good, I ate at a fancy Italian resturant the first night with some friends. Normally the dress is semi-fomal, but since it was the first day they let us in even though we looked like bums. I still laugh that they let in a hippie kid with long blonde hair down to his butt, a volcom hat, board shorts, crocs on his feet, and a dingy old beige jacket. After that we went to a magic show. The magician pulled me up on stage to help him with one of his acts, which is a nice way of saying, he pulled me up on stage more or less to make a fool out of me. However, after that several people knew my name and were waving and saying hi to me.

I'll write more about it later. Otherwise this post will be too long. Stay tuned for "DAY 2: SUNDAY: AT SEA!"

Boyz 2 Men

2007-01-16T00:19:00.000-06:00

I know I havn't posted in forever. I'd like to say it's because I'm busy, which is true. But as I always say, "If something is important to you, make time for it, no matter how busy you are". So with that logic the simple and undenyable truth is that my blog is not super important to me.
Oh how I wish I could go back to being the uber-nerd who sat around a trailer playing video games all day. That boy had class. He had style. He spoke nerd, which is something that you cannot learn from a book, you have to be around those who speak the language in order to learn to speak it. Without the gift of nerdity, it can take years. I learned to speak it in weeks. What else did that guy have? No life, yes that's true, but he was relaxed.
The truth is that boy is gone. He became a young man, learned the meaning of the word, responsibilty. Learned a thing or two about loyalty. Learned what class really was, learned what style really was. Learned that he knew nothing. Learned that in order to fully understand anything you must realize that you know nothing.
This young man is tired. He ends his long day of work and wishes he could go back to being the boy in the trailer. But at the end of the day when he thinks it through, he know's he wouldn't want to go back to that life. The truth is, despite how long his day might be, and despite how tired he might feel, there is a sense of accomplishment that was not there before. A sense of fullfillment that was not there. And most of all, a happiness that was never there before.
This is why he remains where he is at. That is why he does not go back to that trailer. For now, this is where he belongs. I will not be moved!!

In other news, R.I.P. Saddam. Oh and Ford, you too. Eragon wasn't that cool.

El Cruise!!!

2007-01-03T01:00:00.000-06:00

Guess what everyone? I'm goin on a cruise! I'm so happy! There will be food! There will be...other fun stuff!! It will take forever just to explore the ship! Isn't that awsome? We're stopping at ports in Belize City, Cozumel, and one other place I can't remember, which means it'll be my first time leavin the country. I'm pretty excited about it and i'm sure my friends are too.
My whole home is going by the way. Twenty-Six people goin on a cruise. Will be expensive, but it's not that hard for each person to raise 400 dollars. But until that time I must work. I'm getting up in less than 5 hours, so I really have to go.

My Christmas Wishlist

2006-12-21T23:10:00.000-06:00

3 more days.

My christmas shopping is done. And by that I mean, i've run outta money. I'm sure there will be ppl I'd wished I'd bought a present for, but what can ya do? I'll be kicking myself in a few days for not just making a present. But I'm not completely uncreative, maybe I can come up with a special "christmas day" present. Something that can't be wrapped and put in a box. (I speak of anti-matter particles of course)

I think this will be a good christmas. I can see bad things happening, but that's just cuz i'm negative. No for the most part I think it will be a pretty swell time. It's a shame I can't be so witty anymore, but wit is something that has been eluding me for quite some time.

Packed up Camp and Moved On

2006-12-07T23:31:00.000-06:00

Well, you better have noticed (because if you haven't rest assured that I will find you) that i've been gone from the blogging world for somewhere around 3 weeks. This is my fault, and yet it isn't.
You see it's my fault because i'm the one that accidently got the virus on our computer. However it's not my fault because it was working fine with a virus for 2 weeks before it decided to turn off and not turn back on.
Fortunatly this lack of internet time was time well spent. I sheetrocked our bathroom (sorry our old bathroom) which included a nifty little archway. And rounded all the corners making the entrance to our bathroom look almost persian. Like the Taj'Mahal.
Also I helped pack up a bunch of our stuff and MOVED TO SAN ANTONIO!!! Finally the move has been completed. After 4 long months of waiting we are here. We happend to land right in the middle of christmas push, so things will be a little weird during that time but once it's over big things will be happening, have no doubts.

What else is significant to say...oh, I should mention that we're in the back house on the back property which is probably 200 yards away from the main house. "Only 200 yards" you say? "That's only 2 football fields" you say? Think you can make that walk there and back upwards of 6 times a day? Try it in 50 degree weather with a wind chill that brings it closer to 40? Still think you can do it? Good, I guess your better than me then. Or as good at least cuz that's what i'm doing these days.

Also I set up all the poles for a dog fence today. Tommorrow I must attach the fence. T'will be fun. Well that's about all I have to say about that. My e-mail inbox awaits me!

Happy Birthday Kim

2006-12-07T23:20:00.000-06:00

This one goes out to Kimberly P. (second name witheld for various reasons) Kelley who is turning sweet-and-sour 17 today. And so that she know's that I love her more than that punk she calls "honey" or "baby" or (the most degrading of all) "Mike" I decided to write a post for her birthday. Congratulations on turning 17, I swear the coolest thing about being 17 is that if you add the numbers 1 and 7 together you get 8 which is kinda like two zero's sitting on top of each other and if you seperate them and put them side by side you get 00 and if you add 17 to the begining of that you get 1700 which is how much you would pay for a truly awsome computer.

Ahem, well then. Stay away from all those mexican boys (gringo's are cleaner), don't get pregnant, and remember that if you ever need a shoulder to lean on...look before you lean because the owner of that shoulder might decide to walk off at the last second and leave you helplessly falling towardst the ground.

Happy Birthday Kim, have a great year, I love you.

Be Fruitful and Multiply

2006-11-22T11:20:00.000-06:00

I got a phone call from my brother the other day giving me some not-so-surprising news. "My wife's pregnant" he says. For alot of ppl this might be sort of a shock, but not for. No not considering that 3 other siblings have children on the way. This might not seem like such a big deal when you consider the size of my family. See I have 11 brothers and sisters and an extended family of around 23.
Of my immidiate family I'm the oldest child who's never been married...and I just turned 17. Is that normal? Considering the next oldest is only 2 years my senior? I can count on one hand those of my extended family (the one which tips the scales at 23 members) who are older than me and not married or having a child.
Weddings have turned into annual events for my family. I guess it's just werid considering there were very few nephews and neices in my family for several years, and the all of a sudden 3 this year, and at least 4 next year and the times not even up, there could be more comin along...who knows.

Another home movie

2006-11-11T21:03:00.000-06:00

This is what you get when you mix a bored teen with a blowtorch.

My excuse

2006-11-06T20:16:00.000-06:00

My internet went out for 3 days, and I realized how much I truly need the internet. There's really absoloutly nothing to do on the computer without it. Fortunately with my astute mind I cam up with an idea. I took our digital camera, grabbed a 10 year old film-man, and filmed some stupid stunts intending to make a "ninja video". Well, I got lazy and instead put it to music, the only song on the computer that went decently. Anyway, check it out here, it's about 3 minutes long, and the begining is lame, but just watch it all the way through.

Bo Bo Skiaten

2006-10-27T14:02:00.000-05:00

Look at This!!

That it might not be forgotten!

2006-10-21T16:45:00.000-05:00

They say good things come in three's...or is it bad things? Ah well.
In this case the three good things were a row of birthday's. Mine on the 19th, my brother Justin's yesterday on the 20th, and last Michael Paone's, today on the 21st. We all turned 17, 30, and 17 respectively.
Since this is my blog it's not right to post about my own birthday, and since Justin already has a post for his birthday here it's only fitting that I write this one about good ol' Mikey!

Happy Birthday bro! I hope you had fun at the blast, and have a rockin' birthday party, get yourself a few lapdances, and some of those little umbrella's they stick into drinks. Only one more year. This is your last chance to blame things on childish stupidity, once you turn 18 everything just becomes normal stupidity. Anyway, hope you have a great birthday, love you man!

"Beauty and the Beast"

For some reason this pictures reminds me of alotta the things we got in trouble for as kids.

There's a picture almost identical to this of me and you, only we're both like 8 years old or something, unfortunately my parents have that one, and it's not on my computer or available to me at the moment.

Mmmmm Doughnut!!!

2006-10-15T16:40:00.000-05:00

More Pictures

2006-10-08T02:01:00.000-05:00

For some reason it wouldn't let me upload any more than 2 photo's so i'm putting more here. Genius no?

Behold the awsome-ness of the beach at night!

Mila discovering the joy's of snorkeling.

Various activites on the beach, note the crystal clear water. I've never been to a beach like that before, and I vow never to return to another beach without water so clear.

Roaming the beach. (Notice the weapons of destruction we're carrying? Many a crab met their fate on the end of those tent spikes)

Yo Ho! Yo Ho!

2006-10-08T01:29:00.000-05:00

I just got back from my vacation in Pensacola Florida. We had a rockin time as Houston's visiting pirates. The drive turned out to last a bit longer than we thought it would. It seemed that the campground on Pensacola beach was shut down thanks to a visit from a woman named Katrina. As a result we ended up driving around for an hour trying to find our way to another campground.
We decided to go to one in a town about an hour east of Pensacola called Destin. But halfway there we realized that it would be better to go to the other campground which was about thirty minutes WEST of Pensacola. Once we got back to Pensacola beach, Mila hopped out to see if she could provision our dinner and of course didn't fail to deliver (those Aires women always get what they want). As we were waiting for our Pizza to cook a local shop owner told us that the campground in Destin was alot nicer than the one we were headed towards. Therefore it seemed that destiny had designated our destination, and that destination was decidedly Destin. (Say that four times fast).
We arrived at the campground on monday evening and left Thursday morning. It was a decent half-mile walk from the campsite to the beach, and we had quite alot of fun roaming the beaches at night, whether just to take a stroll, or to hunt for and inevitably punch the evil crustacians, whom made the shoreline their home, to death.
All in all our vacation was remarkably fun and was quite needed after the stress of moving (which still isn't over :( ). Now I know most of you won't read this post unless you see some pictures on it. You all know I don't post pictures often, but I am a blog_god of miracles. So as luck would have it...uh...I mean thanks to my divine intervention, I conjured up some photo's of our vacation.

Mike, Jono, and Kevin snug as bugs in a rug.

Poor abused Chelsey after the three Pirates (pictured above) got ahold of her.

Because lists are fun!

2006-10-01T19:49:00.000-05:00

5 Rowdy teens

4 Days of fun

3 bottles of rum(if only)

2 SGA's

1 Awsome time!

Happy Birthday!

2006-09-29T02:43:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARA!

I would've posted this on your birthday, but I didn't get a chance until now. Even though you'll probably never see this, I still thought I should put this up. I hope you had a great 17th birthday. I love you so much, your the coolest friend in the world. I hope you have tons of fun, and really enjoy this new year.
I could never ask for a funnier, prettier, sillyer, smarter, more reliable, guitar playin', Spanish speakin', bible quotin' friend. I love you tons and tons!
Have an Awsome Birthday!

P.S. Sorry I didn't have a more recent pic to put up. You need to send some to me.

Duped!

2006-09-24T01:32:00.000-05:00

I'm more than just a little angry right now. I was just duped into wasting alotta time. Let me explain.
For the last few days i've discovered the joys of youtube.com a pretty cool website where you can find a video for almost anything. Tonight I was just browsing when something caught my eye. X-Men 3. I decided to check it out and Lo and Behold there was the actual movie. Well, so what if the screen is tiny and the video quality was kinda dark, the movie isn't even on DVD yet. I'd already seen it but Kevin hadn't so we sat down to watch the movie. The movie was cut up into 9 seperate video segments, each nearly 11 minutes long. Unfortunatly we didn't discover that we had been tricked until the end of the 8th clip. It ended right before the final battle, so we quickly looked for number 9. The last video. I search the list, and it's nowhere to be seen. I go to the channel of the man who uploaded the movie, and there he has in a nice little list the first 8 clips. And no number 9. Needless to say I was furious. How dare a person get my hopes up like this only to be dashed by something he believes to be funny when in reality it's not. I wasted 90 minutes watching a movie only to miss the last 11 minutes, the best part, the climactic ending.
I guess what i'm trying to say with all of this is that youtube is a great website, you can find just about anything on there, including movies which I just discovered tonight. Just be careful and check to make sure the entire movie is there before you start watching. Or you'll waste your night!

Finding Forgiveness

2006-09-16T23:18:00.000-05:00

Cooking is for losers. That's why I couldn't make anything today lord. Three meals and the only thing that worked was the cold cereal. I didn't know you even could mess up tuna fish sandwhiches! And really, it wasn't my fault the can of chicken and gravy splattered all over me. It was a bad canopener, it wouldn't open it all the way. You know that lord. It wasn't my fault that when i tried to push it open a eruption of chicken and gravy spewed out from it, as the sharp edge of the lid cut open my hand. And the candy apples? Who knew that you arn't supposed to cook the candy as long when your using half the recipie? I certainly didn't.
Lord, I guess my point is that...I was mad you know? I didn't mean what I said. I know that thousands of people work for the "Banquet", and "Chicken of the Sea" companies. I didn't mean what I said when I asked you to please burn their bodies in vats of liquid hot candy apple syrup. It was an unguarded moment, something slipped out of my mouth.
And yes, perhaps the unguarded moment did last an entire thirty minutes. Please spare them lord! I know I asked you to rip them apart at a molecular level, but it's not their faults that I can't cook! I know I also gave you a good reason to do it lord. I told you that they were lower than dirt. They were corperate executives. And perhaps the path they chose was not the best one in life. Perhaps one day a random mugger off the street will shoot them and end their reign of boxed dinner terror. But that's not my desicion to make lord, it's yours.
So here I am throwing myself at your feet and interceding on their behalfs. The boilings and subsequent candy apple syrup coatings of thousands of semi-innocent souls could be on my hands lord. And I don't think i'm ready for that. Perhaps if you just had them attacked by a pack of angry turkeys, or even just tripped their feet out from under them as they were trying to show their girlfriends that they were still young by playing a game of hopscotch.
One more thing lord; that thing I told you about the kangaroo and the mudwrestling...it wasn't true. I've never been to australia. I've never even been on a plane! I didn't take that money, and I certainly didn't wrestle a kangaroo for it! Kangaroo's don't wrestle anyway, they box!
And finally lord...the frog I killed. I know all I needed to do was bash it on the head. Perhaps I shouldn't have even killed it, but the frogs are taking over our pool and it's disgusting. Perhaps, I should've just bashed it and threw it off in the woods. I'm sorry for letting my anger get the best of me. But really, in biology classes in highschool they dissect frogs. How different is chopping one up into tiny little pieces with a machete? Not very different at all. In fact there were only 6 or 7 peices. The 4 limbs and 3 body sections. You know I never would have done that normally...but I saw the frog there, and I saw the machete, and I kept replaying that scene in my head when I was 7 years old. I remember it like it was yesterday....

Jason (the older brother): Common Jesse! It's just a frog! Chop it up! Pretend it's a bad guy.

Jesse (the innocent 7 year old): But Jason, it's alive. I can't just kill a living thing. The lord loves it, just like he loves me and you.

Jason (talking in hushed tones): Listen you 7 year old little missfire, if I don't see that frog lying on the ground in 10 bloody little pieces in the next 15 seconds i'm gonna let it live.

Jesse (confused): I don't get it.

Jason (psychotic): Oh yeah, i'm gonna let it live. I'm even gonna feed it. And do you know what i'm gonna feed it?

Jesse (frightened): My toes?

Jason (laughing): You catch on pretty quick Jess. Now, common, chop chop!

Jesse (lifts machete over his head as a single tear rolls down his cheek): I'm sorry my amphibian little friend!

Frog (realizing what's going on): Holy S*&%, F this man i'm outta here!

Jason (Angry): Get back here you dang frog, I'm gonna cut you up and use you as bait when I go fishing with the Greysons!

Jesse (Innocent): I'm sorry the frog ran away Jason.

Jason (sitting degenerately): What am I gonna do now? I promised Mr. Greyson I'd had frog leg bait for him.

Jesse (Cute): I don't know what we're gonna do Jason. But I can tell you one thing, whatever it is, we'll do it together!

Jason (mixed emotions): Jesse...you LITTLE F$%&! IF YOU'D JUST KILLED THAT FROG I'D HAVE MY BAIT! I'm gonna ram this stick so far up your butt you won't be able see straight!

Jesse (running and screaming): AHHHHHH!!!!

(flashback ends)
And that was the moment i brought the machete down on the frog lord. Life seems so simple until your faced with a choice like this. But sadly, I made the wrong one. Forgive me lord. Forgive me!

(Flashback taken from "Tennessee and Me: Memoirs of Jesse")
For more information please write Jesse at...his e-mail address.

Have a Good Laugh!

2006-09-10T19:55:00.000-05:00

I always like to share information that is funny, or interesting. Thanks for showing me these videos Dave. There great. The guys website is called baratsandberata.com most of their video's are pretty hilarious, at least I thought so. Click here to watch the video. Click on the other links when you finish watching this one to see more of their video's. Make sure the links you click on are from the same guys, cuz there's alotta copycats that arn't very funny.

Crikey!

2006-09-04T03:22:00.000-05:00

Sorry I just had to edit this post.

For those of you who don't believe the endtime is near, I say unto you, LOOK AROUND! Pluto is no longer a planet!?!?! What the heck? They made it a dwarf planet? Who the hell are you to take away our smallest planet you scientists.
Steve Irwin is dead?!!?! The man is (was) an invincible wrangler of crocodiles. He taught the world more facts about Australia and it's wildlife than anyone alive. Hell, he made Australia intersting again.
We can't take hair gel on the plane anymore?!?! Gimme a break, If I wanna crash a plane all I need is a death wish and 2 or 3 suicidal (or fanatical) friends.
Hell, a couple of months ago our country's Vice President SHOT SOMEBODY!
If these aint signs of the end I don't know what are. Well actually...if this were a serious post I would include wars (Iraq, Israel vs. Lebannon), rumors of wars (Iran or Syria anybody?), famines and pestilence (welcome to africa), earthquakes in diverse places (does the middle of the ocean count as "diverse"?).
Course, skeptics will always find reasons why this is a normal thing and dosn't mean nothing. Could be, I believe otherwise.

For more on Steve Irwin's death go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14663786/

Are you a Nerd?

2006-09-02T01:23:00.000-05:00

Ever get that funny feeling after watching a Star Wars movie that there's something missing in your life? You look around your room "where the heck is my lightsaber"? You wonder "when was the last time I jumped off a rooftop". You say things to people like "May the force be with you". And by the time you realize it it's too late. You've become a nerd. I found this out a long time ago, but i'm not so sure the rest of you are even aware that you are nerds, therefore here is a quick little questionaire to find out if you truly are a nerd...hope you enjoy.

1. Have you ever watched the Sci-Fi channel?

2. Have you seen the Star Wars saga more than 3 times?

3. Do you read comic books?

4. Can you name the original 5 x-men?

5. Do you know which middle earth character you are?

6. Do you know what a "Stargate" is?

7. Is "Wheel of Time" either a) A book b) A religion or c) a code to live life by?

8. Do you know who James Kirk and Jean Luc Picard are?

9. Did you watch Catwoman?

10. Do you know who Gene Roddenberry, Stan Lee, J.R.R. Tolkien, George Lucas, and Robert Jordan are?

If you answered yes to 1-3 questions, you are not a nerd.
4-6: You will be able to hold a conversation with normal people and not go "Jedi" on them.
6-8: You and your few friends probably have an annual "Star Wars Night" in which all 6 movies are viewed in a row.
8-10: You are a hopeless nerd. You have been to conventions, you know what E3 is, Yoda is more than just a puppet to you, and you have posters of Captain Kirk on your wall.

If you are in that last catagory you are probably a frequent visitor to this blog.

Keeping myself in Check

2006-08-27T01:51:00.000-05:00

I realized that my last 3 posts were pretty negative. So this is your chance to see something you wont' see often. Me apologizing.
See, i'm not really even apologizing, i'm just checking myself.
I am thankful i'm in the family.
I just became officially FD a few days ago.
I do like the place i'm moving to.
I am VERY GLAD for the extra help that will be available at this new place.
I'm looking forward to the opportunity to grow and change at this new place.
I'm thankful for such an awsome wedding I just got to participate in.
I'm very thankful I got to spend so much time with my best friends.
I'm very thankful I got to see and spend some time with my family.
I'm thankful I get along with those I live with.
I'm thankful those I live with understand and work well with teens.
I'm thankful those I live with have a good sense of balance between work and play under normal circumstances.
I'm thankful those I live with can handle the stress better than I can and they don't all have blogs to complain about it on.
I'm thankful people are praying for me.

So, for those of you who may have noticed that I've been complaining a bit, I'd like to apologize, your right, I'm sorry, I should praise no matter whats happening. It's something I need to learn to do more, and I do have alot to learn. So I just hope you guys realize that despite what I say I am actually thankful for a great many things, and I am very thankful for my home members, without whom I definetly wouldn't have lasted this long.

That's just Sick!

2006-08-26T12:47:00.000-05:00

This is kinda a follow-up to my last post. It could maybe be considered, "the consequences of very little sleep". Apparently I ate something bad and (seeing as how my immune system was at an all time low due to averaging 5 hours of sleep a night for about a week) my body couldn't handle it.
Without going into too many gross details, I lost 7 pounds (not cool! hopefully I can gain that back) I slept for a good 36 hours, I've never felt weaker in my entire life. AHHHH! I need a break!
Haha, of course realisticly I just had much more of a break than I should have. 36 hours of sleep...I shouldn't have taken that much.
Right now a weekend at my parents trailer would sound REALLY REALLY nice. Relaxing sleep, TV, Video Games, Food, most importantly...no kids. WOW!
Ok well enough of that, enjoy your lives folks.

A Cacaphony of mixed emotions

2006-08-22T03:26:00.000-05:00

My mind is racing.
My heart is throbbing.
My muscles are aching.
My back is breaking.
I'm happy.
I'm sad.
I'm excited.
I'm exhausted.
There's so much to say, I'm limited only by my vocabulary which, sad to say, limit's me quite a bit.

You won't understand these emotions until I back up a ways. Eight months ago to be exact....

December 26th 2005...
I've Just left a great Christmas at my brothers house, and I'm walking into the front door of the place I will call my home for the next three months. This will be the first time I've lived away from home for more than a few weeks. The longest I've been away from my parents. I'm completly flipped out.
Over the course of the next few months, certain problems arise, some personal and private, and some quite public and well known throughout the city. Nevertheless these problems stay in the realm of emotion, and don't merge with the physical. At least...not yet.
Sometime in March, I move over to another house for what was intended to be a One month stay. Wrong again.
The stay lasts Five months. Over this course of time I slowly break away from my old home, of which I am technically still a part of. And therein lies the problem. It has a little something to do with a thing called the "Criteria Review" and what happens when you fail. I tell you, I've not come this close to becoming FD to go MM now. We're given our verdict..."Join a new home by September 25th, or go MM". No turning back now, we've got no choice but a new home. Fortunately a place is found in San Antonio. Now comes the challenge of renovating a large house, and packing and moving an unbelieveable amount of stuff.
The order is given, from now on our freeday's will be cut in half. A sleep-in will be given, and no more until the move is completed.
But fortunatly there is good in everything. Despite the hair-pulling stress of this project, (at least one-quarter of which I must shoulder all on my own) there is still opportunity for fun, enjoyment, and relaxation...well, maybe not relaxation.
My sister Rosie, had her wedding last thursday. It was beyond excellent. It's amazing how a wedding with such a small budget and whose reception is held in a trailer park can turn out so well. I've not had so much fun at a wedding in a long, long time. But the fun's not over, another half-day with my friends and family is way too cool.
Having three of the greatest people I know spending two nights in my home also helps keep the excitement alive. But throughout all the fun and excitement I am still bothered by the pestering thought...September 25th, MOVE IT!
All good things must come to an end, and so did this visit from my best friends. It will certainly be remembered for a long time to come. Not only by the fun that was had...but by the day that followed. A day that will be remembered for all time as "The Day from Hell" Subtitle..."Ducks!".
I cannot possibly describe how much I'm going through right now, partly because I have to keep my blog fairly edifying, partly because alot of it is personal and things I don't feel comfortable sharing with the world, and partly because I lack the words to describe just how much is going on in my head. I've had only 4 hours sleep for the last 4 days. I worked 14 hours today...nonstop packing, lifting, moving. I kept up a steady stream of persperation for a solid 6-8 hours. Around midnight my mind gave way and for the next 3 hours spoke of nothing but ducks. This turned out to be the highlight of the day, you'd never realize just how funny things sound when your exhausted. But common, ducks are just hilarious.
Tommorrow morning our moving truck which we just finished packing will go to san antonio. We will spend the day unloading and return tommorrow night. Over the course of the next few weeks we will finish moving everything out (we only got about half).
Now that you know my story, I'll let you think on it for a while. I'm tired, I'm dirty, I'm sweaty, My muscles hurt, My bones are breaking, my right leg feels like it's been twisted, I'm cut, It's 3:44 A.M...and i'm waking up at 8 A.M.
I'm gonna shower and go to bed. Here's to a fifth straight night of 4 hours sleep!

The Fun Parts of Life

2006-08-11T21:22:00.000-05:00

Gosh, so much to do I have no idea where to begin. My sisters wedding is in 6 days...well really 5 since this day is pretty much over. That's a pretty big deal, ppl coming from all over the country (and other countries) to attend. I must say, she has a bit of popularity. Then of course with my whole family being here there will be some form of get together, which I will try my best to make it to but I can't promise anything. There's friends who wanna stay in my home during this time, wedding money to somehow scrape together, console myself that i'll be wearing the same shirt that the groom of this wedding wore to my older brother's wedding last year, that I wore to two proms, and that I wore to another wedding last year. Hey, at least it's well worn.
Something else i've been noticing is that apparently normal ppl don't go to too many weddings. In fact some of the people coming havn't been to a single one. Would you say i'm spoiled in that I went to 2 last year? I really don't think it's so many, I mean, I missed the weddings of 2 older brothers, in cali and canada. So really I should've been to more. But I guess it's just one of the things that comes standard with big familys.

One of the slightly less humorous things about this is that all of these wedding things are not exactly "home priority". What I mean to say is, the fact that my whole family will be in town for a little while is nice and all, but I still have responsibilities in my home that I CAN'T avoid. Besides that, there is the whole moving thing to deal with. To simplify this i've made a short little list of the things I have to deal with.

Working (includes, texturing, painting, pressure-washing, sheetrocking, and tiling) to name some of the bigger things.

Moving

Lifting heavy objects

Dropping heavy objects

Ruining your feet by walking bare-foot on wet concrete for 8 hours

Being attacked by ants on a daily basis

Help my old home move 6 cubic feet of cement

Help my old home drop 6 cubic feet of cement

Shovel the cement back into the wheelbarrows

Burning my feet

Breaking my flip-flops

Doing my laundry

Cooking

Cleaning

Being vomited on by babies

Changing Diapers

Feeding a baby

Spanking a naughty child

Teaching dislexic children

Getting word time

Cleaning out swimming pools

Taking care of dogs

Working out

Finding time to talk to my friends

Finding time to listen to peoples sob-stories

Run

Remembering all my phone numbers because I accidently took my phone into the pool and now the LCD screen dosn't work

Sleep

To clarify this is my day to day stuff. Notice I didn't include anything about the wedding. It's not my wedding, and theres tons of little things about it that help fill up my day, I can only imagine what actually hosting the wedding is doing to my poor sisters brain.

Anyway, I hope with this post you all realize why posting is not something I do so regularly. Having time to post is one thing, having time to think of something to say is another.

Trivia games for $300

2006-08-05T12:46:00.000-05:00

I just found a fun way to make my blog a bit more enjoyable. See that link on the top of my list all the way over there to the right? Click on that and you'll be directed to my daily trivia tournament. There's new quizzes every day, and each player's score is listed, with the highest score showing at the very top of the list. So here's your chance for everyone to prove your smarter than me! :D

Anyhow if you wanna play a little trivia just click on the link and click the "Play Now" button in the bottom left corner of the screen. Oh one last thing, you'll have to create an account on the host website to play. It only takes a few seconds, and it wont' give you a virus or anything like that. k, Enjoy.

Proffesional Eating

2006-07-27T22:47:00.000-05:00

I stuck a plum in my mouth today. I ate it in one bite. Sound like a big feat? Not really. When I was 3 I won the award at our church for biggest smile. A little while later I tested my biting ability and realized I had somewhat of a large mouth. Over the next few years I practiced stuffing large quantities of food in my mouth at one time. It gradually went from half a hamburger, to a whole hamburger. Then a whole whopper, then somewhere in the vicinity of 100 french fries, a handful of saltine snack crackers (10 I belive it was).
Now most of you probably think this is no big deal and quite easy. The thing that makes it tricky is not only stuffing the large quantity of food in your mouth, but actually downing it. That's chewing and swallowing it without use of your hands, utensils or anything but your mouth. Simply keeping the food in your mouth is a challenge, today I tested my abilities with two mouthwatering plums. I was in the middle of chewing them up, slowly but surely, I was doing it, unfortunatly I had an audience who was half grossed out, and half cheering me on, but mostly laughing. Sadly theirl laughter got to me, and on about my fourth laugh a Jetstream of half-chewed plum shot out of my mouth, very similar to a stream of vomit.
My half-cheering, half grossed audience, quickly became a fully grossed audience, and as with most gross things laughed all the more, uncontrolably also.

One could say I failed in my attempt to eat 2 plums at once. I don't consider it a failure, merely an opportunity to try again. Hopefully I will have a clip in a few days of me and Kevin attempting this once more, this time in a contest to see who will do it fastest. And this time....no laughing.

The beginning of the end?

2006-07-20T22:08:00.000-05:00

Well, for once i'm not posting for kicks and giggles, or in an attempt to figure out how to get more of them. The topic is one that 90% of my readers will yawn at, and probably one or two will ooh and awe at, but I ask you to have an open mind as I explain my position.

The topic is the growing conflict in the middle east. I know some of you guys don't believe in the "Endtime" but for those of you who do...this is some scary s*#t man! This could very well set into motion a chain of events that will bring the Anti-christ regime into power. Think about it? Those of you who read the GN's have read about this big thing that's supposed to be happening in the states in august. Do you suppose it could have something to do with this conflict?
For those of you who don't know (and that's probably just ben) for the last week israel has been attacking and bombing all over lebbanon (however you spell that), hundreds of american citizens are being evacuated out of the country, and both sides say they will not cease the fighting until the other does.
Anyone who knows the stability in the middle east right now can see how this could escalate into a war that will cover the entire region, if Iran joins in we could be looking at some serious trouble. They are already on shaky grounds with the states cuz they won't give up their nuclear program. I don't know too many details, but I know that things could start to get serious. What do you think?

OH-, was du mit dem Internet tun kannst

2006-07-14T23:26:00.000-05:00

Haha, dachte ich, daß ich gerade versuchen würde, in einer anderen Sprache für eine änderung bekanntzugeben. Ich hoffe, daß du Kerle Deutsches sprichst. Wenn jedermann die Zeit und die Bemühung nimmt, dieses zu übersetzen, ist mein Hut aus zu dir. Aber für jetzt meinen Hut bleibt auf meinem Kopf. Und selbst wenn ich ihn beseitige, gebe ich ihn nie dir, es bin mein Hut, den du stößt. Deine Selbst erhalten. Das Sprechen von erhalten deine Selbst, dich kann deine eigene Eiscreme auch erhalten, ich kann nicht dir erklären, viele Zeitleute versucht haben lassen, etwas von meiner Eiscreme zu erhalten. Es ist meins du Rucke! Sowieso zu jedermann, das Deutsches spricht, für Messwert danke! Auf Wiedersehen!

Help!

2006-07-14T19:49:00.000-05:00

I've begun to have an increasing amount of respect for ppl that can post something new on their blog every day. Even if it isn't always interesting. I've even started to respect those who can keep up with once a week. I keep coming back to this increasingly lamer blog and wondering if maybe a new post could spice things up...keep it alive. I havn't really had an interesting post since before wordstock. Just isn't right. But each time I sit down to type something new I find out that nothing comes. It's a shame, really. I guess the real reason is because when I feel really inspired it's usually very late at night, and then I need to go to bed in order to wake up on time (which i've been getting in trouble for not doing lately) and so I can't sit down and write something. Although whether I do or not I don't end up getting to bed until late anyway.
Anyhow I thought maybe those of you who can't seem to shutup on your blog could maybe give some pointers on how to keep posting so much. Or maybe those of you with funny blogs could give me a tip on how to keep it fresh an interesting. Any ideas?

Independence Day

2006-07-07T21:16:00.000-05:00

Foreword by the Author

Any non americans my not find this post to be patriotically fullfilling. If this is an essential ingredient for you for a comfortable blog read, please skip this post.

I just got back from Austin lastnight. Took a bus on monday, and spent the fourth of july with my brothers. I've never travelled alone before. I've heard lots of horror stories about buses, so I wasn't too anxious to get on one, especially not alone. It turned out to be pretty uneventful though. I didn't even know buses had "in-flight" movies.
I saw the movie Napoleon Dynamite for the first time, and I'm sure I'll be quoting lines from it for the next few years.
I had a few debates about things of the spirit (which by the way are impossible to win as long as the answer to every question is "your thinking in terms of the flesh, we don't understand the spirit" it may be true, but makes an argument impossible to win on either side).
I had some fun, and got to spend some time with my family which was nice.
Had a cookout, a few video game tournaments, and quite a few sessions of people just sitting around laughing.
I guess i'm only posting this cuz I have nothing else to say, and seeing that some ppl have been complaining that I don't post enough, I thought I'd just put something. Perhaps something funny will come later.

Meaninfull Poem

2006-06-27T01:22:00.000-05:00

This is for all of you that write poems that don't rhyme.

I see your face reflected in a puddle,
the light from your eyes sings to me like an opera in the clouds,
you say my name as beautuful as a poem full of italicized words,
I think to myself what bad analagies people use when writing those poems,
then i see another face reflected in the same puddle,
and it makes my eyes go dark, like a lightbulb burning out,
i scream your name but you don't answer me, like a deaf mute,
i curse the name of the other face, like a psychic who know's the name of someone he's never seen before,
but it's too late, that face takes yours away, like a river of tears,
then i realize that when i'm looking at the puddle i'm looking at myself, like a mirror,
and your face is the reflection of what is in my soul, like a photograph,
and the other guys face is my fears, like a jealous guy,
i scream out to you, and a big napkin comes and wipes away my tears, like kleenex,
then i look up and i see you holding the napkin, your hands like metal robotic pinchers, only with skin instead of metal,
you say my name, and then i realize that we've said each others name 4 or 5 times already,
you smile at me, and my fears melt away, like ice cream in a microwave,
i pick you up and carry you away, like superman.

Jesse Bruni

uh....

2006-06-18T12:44:00.000-05:00

i've been trying to think of something to post about for a while. My brain's not working. Kids are screaming. It's a game to them. See how loudly and how much like a gjrl we can scream before Jesse or Kevin comes in and tears us limb from limb. I was in charge of the kids yesterday. I made them exersize. That's Exersize by the way not ExOrsize. They arn't at that stage yet. They actually didn't do too bad. They need to lose weight to be sure, but still at least they arn't pathetically weak.
Kids run into the room. "JESSE SAVE US!" Hides under my chair. What sort of game are they playing? The six year old runs out of the room screaming his battle cry "CHAARRRRGGGEEE!". 2 seconds later, the same brave kid darts back into the bathroom and locks the door. Kevin enters on his hands and knees. "Where's Ashley and Casey?" He whispers. Screams. Too late, they woke the baby. A well placed kick to the bottom by Kevin and one of the kids runs out crying. Not to worry, he's not in pain. Just trying to get attention. Kevin picks up the baby before he has time to cry and puts him back to sleep like any good attentive father would. That's good. I'm supposed to be watching him today. Glad he picked the baby up for me. See this is why I can't think of anything to blog about. It's a gloomy day. Tonight we usually play basketball. But there's a large chance of rain, and one of the homes has measles. Could put a damper on things. Kevin breaks my train of thought by approaching me with the largest snot bubble i've ever seen in the palm of his hand. "Look" he says. "What is it"? says I. "Snot". He exclaims most "matter-of-factly". "No, that's not snot" I said. "Yes it is, look" says kevin as he pops it. Sick. My stomach turns. Now to write that all down. Oh look, my brother just got online. Maybe i'll talk to him pretending its Kevin. I'll pretend that i'm Kevin and I worship him and his music. Damnit, it's just Dan. And he's being a bit boring. Kevin ruins my fun by letting him know that it's me. Jerk. Kevin try's to pop a zit on my face. "Get away". "I have to pop it if it's the last thing I do". "Get away". I'm boring myself. What a slow day. Maybe a bomb will be dropped somewhere today. That'd spice it up a bit. Give ppl something to talk about around the water cooler. Oh shit. We don't have a water cooler. Still, good table talk.
Today is Fathers day. Happy Fathers day to all you fathers, including my own. Come to think of it, everyone else will be making posts about fathers day and fathers and the wonderful influences they have had on their lives. Except for a few depressing ppl who will say something about how their dad's abused them. Why must they drag everyone else down. Im bored!
Moment of truth. Post. Or Delete.

Happenings, Pictures and things

2006-06-09T13:45:00.000-05:00

I have the internet again. I'll give that a moment to sink in. Ok, moment's over. Unfortunately I don't have freakin TIME to use it! I guess it's irony, the guy who always had too much time on his hands now has none. I'm a full time member of this home. I'm one out four ppl over 16, and in about 30 minutes i'm going out babysitting. So I better make this fast.

Wordstock was great. To all the ppl I saw, it was great seeing you all again, I hope it's not another year before we all get to meet up. To those who wern't there, "I'm sorry you missed out, but there will alway's be other chances to meet me". Now here are some pictures of the momentous occasion.

This is me and my prom date Maria, I look sorta like a gopher or a beaver or something, but it's the only picture I got.

This is me in a sad attempt to block Frankie in basketball. What can I say. White men can't jump.

This is me and 3 of the 4 systemites at wordstock. Not that I should say anything, I was one last year.

Anyway I dont' have time to post more pics, if you wanna see more go to "wordstockrocks.com"

I'm still alive

2006-05-24T21:17:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody! I bet you thought i was gone didn't you? Bet you thought i'd left the blog world. Well you were wrong. And you know why you were wrong? Cuz your dumb. Anyway, sorry this has to be such a short insult, but i've gotta load up vegtables, curse my luck and timing. But don't stop checking my blog. I shoudl have a new post in like two weeks. Keep the faith. Keep checking your favorite blog for all the latest information on me or just something funny to keep you going another day. Many a life has been saved by this blog, don't ever forget that.

Absence

2006-04-05T01:13:00.000-05:00

Lets not beat around the bush here. I've been absent. In fact, i've been away from an internet connection. I know you guys probably got a little worried there. But don't worry, i'm still alive. Actually I happen to be working on a house for 30 days, and there is no internet there. It's such a bummer. On the bright side though we're getting alotta work done. I did my first day's work on this house 3 months ago, and it's amazing how different it looks now than it did then. Now, considering how long it's been it should be completely done. But you have to understand we were only able to work average of 2 days a week there. In fact one month it was only 2 days for the entire month.
At any rate it's great feeling to look at something like that and see how much you have personally done on it.

In other news, Saturday, April 1st turned out to be a GREAT day. It started small, I woke up at 6:00 a.m. long before any other soul in the house would stir, and dragged my near-lifeless body to the shower. Now when I call it a shower it is merely so it what I am talking about would be recognizeable by my readers. It is in fact a slipper mud pit of certain doom, a breeding ground for evil demons, grotesque monsters, and hair clogs the size of rodents. (You wouldn't believe how good of an adhesive dried seamen can be when it comes to sticking clumps of hair together, it all mixes in what used to be a drain, and is now a uselsess clogged up hole, you see)
Anyway, lets not harp on that.
After my shower, I dragged myself downstairs to make myself some breakfast.
No eggs.
No cereal.
No pancakes.
EUREKA!! No...wait...that's oatmeal. Oh well better than nothing. (Ok anyone who's tasted my oatmeal know's that's not true, but there's no way i'm taking a 4 hour test on an empty stomach. )
That's right, I was up this early cuz I had a test at 8:00 a.m. at a nearby highschool. The SAT test to be exact. This is a good thing by the way, just so everyone knows. I need to get a high score on this test to graduate by Wordstock. (Fingers still crossed for that one, won't know for a few weeks).
Anyway, after my gruel, I was driven down to the highschool for what I thought would be a small test, 30 participants tops. Wrong again!
Now having been homeschooled all my life i'm slightly ignorant about public schools. I'd seen them in movies, and i'd been in them from time and again, but I hadn't been to one in quite a while, and definetly never one of this size. Sure on the outside it looks like a very large building, but on the inside it's a labyrinth of endless corridors, winding staircases, hundreds of classrooms, olympic sized sports areas (several of which on the inside). If not for the aid of very clearly defined signs i'm sure I would've been lost for at least half a day. Anyway, after about 10 minutes of brisk walking (yes it was that huge. We're talking at LEAST 1000 students) i arrived at the sign in table. I was shocked when I saw about 150 students sitting around waiting to be called to their testing rooms. Luckily most everyone had already signed up, so the line was only a few minutes wait.
Once the test began I was immidiatly glad i'd studied up on the SAT beforehand, there were lots of helpful things i'd learned from it that I could now put to use, and i'm pretty sure it increased my score.
There were 2 types of subjects on this test. Math, and English. English was a breeze (not that the multiple choice words were too easy, in fact on average i only knew what 3 of the 5 words meant.) Nevertheless by simple process of elimination and a bit of common sense I found it to be slightly less than challenging.
Of course that was just the english. The english was a good 75% of the test, but the other 25% was still challenging. Actually I should rephrase that. The algebra was challenging. The math was split up into Algebra, Geometry, and Arithmetic. Algebra was the only hard one. It's a shame i've forgotten most of it. I learned it too long ago. At any rate i'm pretty sure I got a decent score.
Ok well, once the test ended I waited outside the school for about half an hour for my ride to pick me up. When it finally did I was informed I would be going to the home I live at for a few minutes to pick up some bread. (Remember for 30 days i'm staying at another house fixing it up) Oh well, I guess this was a good chance to check my mail. The day had been pretty good so far after all.
As we drove up I noticed a recognizeable white SUV and trailer on the street. No way! Who was that beachbum on the phone wearing, shorts, a wifebeater and flip-flops on the driveway? That couldn't be the kid I used to jump off of closet shelves with, make secret forts, and be beaten up by our older brothers with.
Upon closer inspection it is obviously the same person. I havn't seen Mike Paone in about a year, but it hasn't done too much. A little more muscle definition, a little more hair on his face. That's about it.
Anyway, he came over and worked with us for the rest of the day, work including a few priceless April fools pranks, some which could have ended funnier, provided there had been different circumstances. For example, if shirts soaked in uiren would dry faster then unsuspecting victims wouldn't know any better and put them on. Unfortunatly if they are still wet there is little you can do about it. Nevertheless, I had fun.
I also found out later that at the very end of the day my niece was being born.

Ok well I better end. Getting late. Sorry for my absence. See ya.

Monkeyfist_Man!

2006-03-14T21:35:00.000-06:00

Late at night, when none are around,
Jesse straps on, a purplish gown,
Dealing with criminals wherever I can,
who could it be, but the monkeyfist_man?

Through hallways at night,
between a caleb-sylvia fight,
i'll give you a fright,
if your cause isn't right.

But if your lifestyle is just,
then you simply must,
meet the man with the plan,
he's the monkeyfist_man.

So at night on your comp,
or during a midnight romp,
if you value your life-span,
stay away from the monkeyfist_man.

You think I have insomnia, that cannot be true,
if I fall asleep at devotions, remember monkeys fling poo,
especially when their told, when not to sleep,
if I'm taking my slumber than don't make a peep.

Lest you find yourself in my awsome grasp,
my hands or my feet, around your throat they will clasp,
because when i'm woken, don't be absurd,
run and hide far away, lest you're beaten by the nerd.

So call me a loser, whatever you wish,
at night in my pajama's, some justice i'll dish,
and when you find yourself all alone in a can,
you'll wish you'd been nice, to the monkeyfist_man.

By Jesse

written between 9:30 and 9:48 P.M

Kevin's Rebuttal

2006-03-05T03:13:00.000-06:00

Kevin: yeah well, I think your ugly.

What I like about Kevin

2006-03-05T02:47:00.000-06:00

What Can i say about Kevin? Well I'm writing this because he's standing right here watching me, an what a better time to tell him the he's worse than me in almost every way?
For this message we will make a list of all the things that are good about Kevin. Then we will make a list of all the ways I top him.

1. He has a great sence of humor.
Reason it's not as good as me: Because his sence of humor has only been great since he's been around me and picked up my style.

2. He's stylish. He always dresses well.
Reason it's not as good as me: I don't wanna sound rude here, but when Kevin wears nice clothes it still dosn't compare to me wearing my "bum outfit". Sorry Kevin I'm really not trying to be mean, but facts are facts.

3. He has a pleasant odor.
Reason it's not as good as me: This is actually the one thing where he is as good as me. Almost. You see, his odor is almost mine because he spends so much time in my awsome presence that even my smell rubs off on him. It's still tainted by his Tincherness, but it's darn close. Kudo's to you on this one Kev.

4. He is in very good shape.
Reason it's not as good as me: Because his shape is round.

5. He has (without sounding too gay) sexy hair.
Reason it's not as good as me: Cuz it's not me you dumbasses!

6. He has good taste in earrings.
Reason it's not as good as me: Why do you think I don't wear earrings? Because it's a little gay. I don't think I need to say more about this.

7. He's educated.
Reason it's not as good as me: Because he's not nearly as educated. But you shouldn't be mocking him for that, I dare any one of you to call yourselves more educated than me. Seriously, do it, I dare you!

8. He dosn't fear my wrath.
Reason it's not as good as me: Because the only reason he dosn't fear my wrath is because I havn't brought it down upon him, you know, like i'll do to anyone who dares to say that they are smarter than me.

9. He's spiritual and loves the lord.
Reason it's not as good as me: Because the lord told me he loves me more, and that Kevin is sort of a suck up.

10. He was in a band.
Reason it's not as good as me: Because his best bass solo has a smaller audience then me playing spoons for god sake!

11. He has alot of friends.
Reason it's not as good as me: I have more.

12. He gets alot of girls.
Reason it's not as good as me: Because i've given all that refuse to him.

13: Because this number matches his mental age.
Reason it's not as good as me: Because I can't say the same about myself for any number I can write to within the next few years working non stop on only writing numbers. What I mean to say is, I have the wisdom of those who have lived for thousands of years. Deal with it.

14. He's extremly athletic.
Reason it's not as good as me: He's only that way because when I was born I prayed over his feeble body and blessed him, transfering a good 10 percent of my athleticisim to him.

15. He has much more depth than he seems.
Reason it's not as good as me: Can you compare a "20 oz bottle" to the pacific? I think not.

16. He has a big family.
Reason it's not as good as me: Ever hear of the Paones?

17. He could jump off a cliff and survive the landing.
Reason it's not as good as me: I could do it from a plane.

18. He cannot tell a Lie.
Reason it's not as good as me: Because I introduced him to the truth.

19. He can have a litter of over 7 children at one time.
Reason it's not as good as me: I can adopt as many as I want at one time.

20. He can count at least this far.
Reason it's not as good as me: Cuz I have counted to Infinity.

Conclusion. If you ever live with Kevin than you will be a very lucky person. You will be in the presence of one who has been in the presence of me. Imagine how new diciples must have felt being in the presence of Peter or James. It's sorta the same. Including the excruciating deaths they experienced.
On this happy note I send this form into "match.com" in the hopes that Kevin will find a potential mate. I don't think there are any women who could resist. Except the ones that will be wondering more about me.

M.A.T.C.H Meeting

2006-03-05T02:12:00.000-06:00

It's finally here. And it sure took long enough. Monday is the M.A.T.C.H meeting. Yes I know, more acronyms. This one actually dosn't make much sence though. You see the "Monthly Area Teen Classes in Houston are currently being held once every few months, in San Antonio, and people from out of state (New Orleans) are known to attend.
Yes the title needs some reworking but all in all it was a great idea. I think all the young ppl who have lived in texas for the last 2 years are deeply indebted to Jeremy for coming up with this idea.
Anyway, i was really writing this post to let everyone know that I will be gone till thursday, so no new posts. And really, when I come back i'll not wanna write anything cuz I'll have just gotten back. Friday lord-willing i'll head down to the DMV and get myself and I.D. Saturday and Sunday are pretty long days but nighttime is free, we'll see what happens. Then the next monday is freeday, you really think i'm gonna spend it talking to you losers? Think again! I've got family funs to watch! Tuesday is a pretty long work day because it's the adults freeday. No they aren't gonna spend it with you losers either! Wednesday and Thursday i'll be working, maybe I'll feel like communicating to my flock, but I have my doubts. And then the cylce starts up all over again.
So you see, there really isn't time for you all in my busy schedule. But make an appointment and I'll try and work you in sometime.
Hey Someone told me something funny the other day. They said (are you ready for this?) "Jesse, you are a very proud person!" I laughed so hard I fell out of my chair. Then I proceeded to flip it around on them and make it seem like they were the proud one, and you know what? Because i'm so good at what I do, it worked! Now this guy is going along thinking that he's proud (although he definetly is more proud than me, I got the victory over pride long long ago) hah, what a fool. I've also been told i'm a Sho-Vah-Nist. (I decided to give you the pronunciation rather than the word, not because i'm incapable of spelling the word cuz i'm totally capable of it ([I just go to http://www.loxyfady.com/2006/02/my-little-chauvinist.html ;) ]) but because i think that you guys are incapable of pronouncing it. See how i'm a boon to all of mankind? See how 16 years ago the lord blessed you a gift you have as of yet left unnapreciated? Well that's all about to change. I nominate March 5th as "Jesse appreciation day". You know, just shower me with compliments (women feel free to send me an "appreciative" pictures you would like) tell me how much you like my personality, wit, hair, eyes, build, general looks, spirituality, depth, anything else you can think of. And while you don't need to give me any sort of power (the lord's blessed me with that already) i'd be flattered if you'd start refering to me with a title as the leader i've been to you all these years. You see thus far I've been content with being called by my first name, but now I feel that you guys should show your appreciation more and just go ahead and call me "Master". After all i've kinda been like the lighthouse on the stormy night for many of you all your lives (including those of you that are older than me), I just feel (and I think the lord does too) that I need to be appreciated more and more.
With each passing day feel free to stop by and tell me how much you revere me, not as a god, oh no, I would be nothing without Jesus, but sort of as a "Friend-to-end-all-Friends". A role-model you can look up to, thank, praise, generally just sit at my feet and wait for me to speak, and when I do throw a week long celebration for my awsomeness. See? Do you see? There can be so much more to life than your fair-weather friends. Your friends who only act like friends when there is no one else around. You can be friends with me, and I promise your life will be changed forever. Why? Because I'll change it. Preferably not through violent means, but when your out of line (for instance making the insinuation that i'm not several times more intelligent than you or your entire bloodline for years to come is or ever will be) then I may have to correct you. But don't worry, even my corrections are done in love.
Now, i'm by no means perfect, but I think as far as we mortals go, i'm about as close as it gets. I don't mean to sound proud here, and this should be in no way taken as a "look how good Jesse is lets all lift him on our shoulders" but I can't help it if some people get that impression. And those of you who get that impression and do what you think I am asking you to do, I will no try to stop you. But those of you who think i'm out of line are free to not be my friend at any time you like. Oh sure there may be consequences. But sometimes ppl just disappear because they really did fall of a cliff during a hike. Just cuz a person disappears dosn't nessiscarily mean they were "taken-out", I wish you all wouldn't be so paranoid. Anyway, I sinscerly hope this message finds you all in good health, and I will pray that you all find creative ways to appreciate me tommorrow. May the lord watch over you and any form of gift you may have bought me.

Disclaimer: This is intended as a joke. Try not to be offended by it. Lets not be overly sensitive shall we?

An insight into my mind

2006-02-27T21:31:00.000-06:00

Ever wonder what I think about? Lets take a peek inside Jesse's mind for a moment shall we.

Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, CLUNK, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, CLUNK. Boy that laundry machine sure does make alotta noise. It's hard to concentrate on what i'm writing. But you know, if you think about it, I don't really have to think about what i'm writing cuz i'm just writing exactly what i'm thinking, and that requires no thought, but I had to think about that in order to write it, but I shouldn't have been thinking of it cuz if I have to think about it than it's not a natural thought, it's me thinking of what i'm writing and writing it down.
DING DONG! HEY THAT'S THE DOORBELL! I bet mari and Kevin are home, what's with kevin's long red hair anyway? is he trying to copy me or something? Seriously what's up with that? But he says he started growing out his hair before me, but I don't think he did. Sigh, michelles chat window is orange I better see what she's saying, hold on a second....ok i'm back. But i'll probably have to answer that AGAIN! Speaking of being free, I think the ultimate freedom is being naked in front of thousands of ppl but don't ask me why I think that, it's just what i'm thinking gimme a break, they're my thoughts man, if you don't wanna hear my thoughts why dont' you get the hell outta my head? Oh yeah, cuz I invited you in, well as you can see I like to talk alot in my head, if my brain were a person he'd never shutup, he'd be the most annoying person on the planet cuz he'd ALWAYS be saying something, and most of the time it'd be really really really stupid. But then he'd probably entertain alotta ppl, cuz he wouldn't care if ppl liked him or not, he'd just say what was on his mind.
Like those ppl that say that they say whatever is on their mind, it's not true,cuz they really don't say it all the time. If they did they just wouldnt' shutup, like i'm not shuting up now.
Aww man you know what, Jesse's about to cut me off, now I wont' get to say whatever I want whenever I want, and If I can't say whatever I want whenever I want then I won't get ppl to tell me what that puppy looks like and I.....

Sorry about that. My mind gets carried away sometimes. Isn't it nice to have a calm person at the keyboard? Able to control whatever he writes.
Relaxing isn't it?
Now if ever you ask me something like "what is wrong with you?" then you can go look at this post. Bye bye!

Wordstock III, SAT I, DMV and other important Acronyms

2006-02-25T19:10:00.000-06:00

Wow, i'm gonna be keeping myself busy for a while. Well First things first. I finally got a date to take my SAT, and not a moment too soon. My official testing date is April 1st at 8:00 A.M. in the Spring Highschool in Texas.
Unfortunatly in order to go I need a quality photo I.D. That means I gotta go down to the DMV and get an I.D and I gotta get it soon. It shouldn't be too much of a problem. But finding a day when there's a free driver to do that is almost impossible. I also hear I.D's can take several weeks to get to you, so It better be in time.
Anyway, when all that is handled and I take my test (and hopefully get a high enough score) then my school will send me a Diploma. And that needs to happen before March 10th. The reason? It's Wordstock III! And besides music, fellowship, food, and all that jazz, it's also going to be a location for the second Graduation/Prom. Only this time it will be for a whole lot more ppl. And I will be up there in cap and gown, just one year after my scholastically challenged sister (it should have been the same year mind you, not my fault) proudly walking up onto stage, being watched by hundreds of beaty eyes, scores of Jett, Jr, and Sr girls commenting on my rugged good looks, beautiful long hair, and godlike intelligence. And why not, after all, i'm only 16 and i'll be graduating from 12th grade (don't get me started on all the delinquints that only go till 10th grade, and it takes them longer too! HA!).
On that note let me say a short prayer that my pride will not be my downfall. Without a passing score on this test, I do not get a diploma, and I do not get to graduate, and I do not get to be adored by hundreds, and...wait, i'll still be adored by hundreds. You'd never think a nerd could be so popular. Anyway all this to say, Wordstock III will be an event you shouldn't miss, so will the taking of my test. And as for the other Acronyms I mentioned...seriously, live in the family for a week. The family needs an Acronym key. It could fill an entire book. 300 pages so you no longer get confused when someone says "i'm on the CGO board and my Home took our HER fund and spent it to bribe the CROS and the RS's to keep us on FD status and not demote us to MM or FM! But thank god we're not in the days of the RNR where, at the TTC, the VS's told us that if they cought us bribing one of them again then WS would riot and stop sending out GN's!!!"

Moral Dilemna

2006-02-19T00:18:00.000-06:00

I decided it's high time for a "thought provoking" post. So i'm posting this.

There are alotta people in this home that are intelligent. Intelligent people always make for good arguments. Why? Because they know what they are saying when they argue back. And there are some like me who just love to argue. I was on the way back home one day when I got into one of the first discussions with Jeremy that didn't end up as a debate.
I'm not sure who brought it up, but the subject at hand was "The War In Iraq" and whether or not going into Iraq to get Saddam out was a good idea. Most people would instantly spring up and say "No of course it wasn't". But what would you have done in Bush's shoes? Now of course they went in for completly different reasons and it wasn't to liberate the people and all that bull. But lets pretend for a minute that it was for the reasons they say. Is it right for them to start a war to depose a man who's committed attrocious crimes against humanity? Should America have even gotten involved? Or should they have turned the other way as innocent people were slaughtered?
The dilemna of "to interfere or not to interfere" is around everywhere. Some say it's wrong to interfere in the affairs of others (particularly other cultures) and some say it's wrong NOT to. Who is really right? During WW2 would you have stood idily by as Hitler slaughtered countless millions of Jews? Or would you have stepped in and taken part in a war?
It's a bit of a "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. If you step in and start a war people will say "How could Bush be such a monster? Starting wars and killing innocent people just to get one man!"
If you don't step in people will say "How can Bush be such a monster? How can he stand idly by and watch as this one man slaughters countless innocent people?"
So the question is; is it right? Or is it wrong? Does the end justify the means? Does it ever?

14 cents an hour!?!?!

2006-02-11T19:32:00.000-06:00

Hi guys, i'm here to complain again. Now don't take this the wrong way, just cuz i'm complaining dosn't mean i'm not thankful. I just thought that I need to post about something and well...I have nothing better to post about. As few of you may know, I spend a good 8 hours a day working. 6 days a week. Hard work too. Ok, maybe painting and drywall isn't that hard, but anyone that's done it know's how annoying it can be.
At any rate, last week I was having a hell of a day. Me and Kev were having the hardest time trying to fit a peice of drywall. No matter how we cut it something kept going wrong. By this time the power had gone out and Kevin had already electrocuted and burnt himself on a bad extention cord. Yep, it was just one of those days.
Now most working men can comfort themseleves after a long hard day with the thought of their payment at the end of the week. So I thought to myself, "Maybe that could help me get through today". Unfortunately after doing the calculation I came to one shocking conclusion. "I get paid 5 dollars a week". We decided to give the home the benifit of the doubt and only account for an average of 6 working hours a day, although we usually do at least 8. Now lets see who here's a mathmatician. Can anyone figure out how 36 hours of work a week can add up to 5 dollars? I can, and it becomes about 14 cents an hour. The homes defence for our meager payment is "your not being paid anything. The 5 bucks is just your allowance." Still, am I wrong in thinking that a guy who works more should get paid more? The guy who does no work whatsoever gets 5 dollars a week. The guy that works all day long gets 5 dollars a week. What a screwed up system we have. Maybe soon thigs will change. Until then, i'll have to practise being stingy.

They call me "the talent"

2006-02-07T00:31:00.000-06:00

You know once upon a time I tried my hand at art. I'm one of those guys that trys alotta stuff until I find something i'm talented at, unfortunatly art wasn't one of them. Despite it though I still draw sometimes. Not well perhaps, but that's a matter of perspective. At any rate I was helping the kids do their school the other day, and I got bored during a dry period. Kevin was drawing a foolish picture of Mari, so I decided to draw one of my own.

This is Kevin's rendition of Mari and Myself. Not a bad job, tho it looks nothing like either of us.

And here is My rendition of Kevin. Not bad, not bad at all.

PG Mom's

2006-02-03T00:14:00.000-06:00

This is a shoutout to all you PG mommy's out there. Good luck, and god bless.

When your given a gift from god of this magnitude, it's something you'll always cherish. Don't feel bad about it, you gotta embrace it. No matter what it looks or acts like. You'll always love it. On the other hand...maybe abortion should be considered a viable option.

Multiplexing

2006-01-30T22:46:00.000-06:00

Today I went to the movie theater with a couple friends, and this other guy who nobody likes so much, but we won't get into him right now.
I noticed how completly easy it is to get a free movie. Two guys we were with, who's names will be withheld for their own protection, got to see 2 movies entirely free. And the rest of us got 2 for the price of one. We could've done this all day but it was getting late and boring.
I think i'm gonna try this practice more often. People say it's dishonest, but really, the movie theaters don't need an extra 5 bucks.

Coincedently as I write this some ppl are being "talked to" about sneaking into movie theaters, Maybe I should learn to keep my mouth shut.

Observances

2006-01-29T01:52:00.000-06:00

The work I do dosn't require alot of brainpower, most of it is tedious. So what do I do? I think. These are a few things I observed today.

There are more redheads in the family than I knew. And 90% of them live in my home.

Babies cry...Alot.

Babies crap...alot.

Fat people can run surprisingly fast when they have to.

Childcare is for women.

Pregnancy is becoming an epidemic.

Beans make you fart.

Mondosity is not a word.

Mondosity can be a good description for a good number of things.

Words without meanings can describe anything you want them too.

Mondosity has a meaning.

A true friend is hard to come by.

A true friend better not be hard when you cum nearby.

Any idiot can argue, but only a rare few can make a good point.

Blogging is difficult at 2 a.m.

Waking up is difficult at 8 a.m. when you went to bed at 2 a.m.

Devotions is not for sleeping.

Neither is toilet-time.

The more noise a keyboard makes the faster your typing seems.

The more noise a 16 year old roomate makes in their sleep the stupider they seem.

Sleeptalking can be an enjoyment...to observe.

Redheads from Taiwan should be avoided at all costs.

Redheads from Taiwan should be filmed as they sleeptalk.

Redheads from Taiwan should learn to stop sleeptalking before they are filmed doing it.

Inspiration is directly related to the amount of sleep one gets each night.

My Family

2006-01-17T21:10:00.000-06:00

This deserves it's own post. I should thank ben for posting it, since I left it on the other comp.

My Family

Hello everybody, my name's Jesse Joe,
i'm writing this poem, so you all will know,
about my whole family, i'll name every one,
From Justin, to amy, until I am done.

Let's start with the oldest, Justin, his name,
born into a family of enourmous fame.
His dad a muscian, his mother a teacher,
learning the scriptures, just like a preacher.

Clare is the second, Paone you must know,
she travelled to russia, and only found snow.
Over-protective, and cautious perhaps,
too many a person, will fall into her traps.

The third one is David, a Paone again,
a hard working guy, and good with a pen.
Constantly arguing, a synic at heart,
but never too busy, to do his part.

Jamie is next, but last he should be,
fourth, oldest it's true, but youngest to me.
A nerd he is truly, very deep down,
But to me he will always just be a clown.

And fifth is Jason, but for how long i'm not sure,
He's accident prone, and there's no cure.
How long he will last, god only can say,
and when that day comes, his insurance will pay.

And then there is Rosie, a Bruni at last,
obsessed with a guy, with a sinister past.
A mother she'll be in 8 months or less,
a boy or a girl,just try and guess.

And what about Me, how much can I say?
a talent for writing, these poems all day.
Limmericks and sonnets, come take your pick,
i'll write you a poem, and i'll write it quick.

Then comes Benjamin, the second to last,
built like a monkey, he climbs up tree's fast.
And what's his middle name, you'll never guess,
if I tried to spell it, i'd just make a mess.

And at last we come, to Amy the Rose,
Incredibly timid, she's too shy to pose.
I'm sure she does something, but a secret it's kept,
the talent's she has, under the rug they are swept.

I hope you enjoyed this poem I wrote,
because if you don't, some weapons i'll tote.
Can you believe it, this poem is done,
now back to the subject, of getting my gun.

THE END

Friday the 13th

2006-01-16T12:20:00.000-06:00

Wow I can't believe it! I missed friday the 13th. I can't remember the last time I did that. I'm sure you all have your horror stories of what happened to you last friday, but fortunatly for me I don't have one.
Well, i've sure found out alot of things since I've been here. It seems the newest job I've been selected for is "babysitter". Believe it or not. I know for most of you watching a 2 month old baby for a 3-day weekend is something you could do with your eyes closed. But for me (who hasn't been around a baby, much less taken care of one, for about 12 years) accomplishing the task was much more gratifying. Although...changing a diaper for the first time is an experience I could've done without. I suppose I should get used to it. But i've notched up an extra decade to the "Age I want to have children" bar. Well, apart from sitting in a car for 8 hours a day, trying to calm a baby that couldn't smell more like sour milk if he was bathed in a vat of it, my weekend (and indeed my friday the 13th) was quite uneventful. I'm just glad today is monday, my freeday.

Inspiration

2006-01-11T22:10:00.000-06:00

Inspiration is a funny thing. It strikes at the oddest of times. As some of you may know, I'm sometime possessed to write odd little poems, limmericks. Some of you may even have been lucky enough to receive a special one just for you. Maybe one of these days I'll post one on this blog. For now though, they stay private excremations of my mind.
Anyway, today I was all alone, at a strange house in a strange neighborhood. Not entirely forigen as i'd been there before, but it was strange nonetheless. At any rate, i had been dropped off to paint as I do often. My chauffer was off shuttling other vehically challenged people, so I stood there with my roller in hand, calmly talking to myself so as to entertain my various angels and spirit helpers. I'm quite certain they were amused as I tried to guess what they were doing at that very moment. I think I hit pretty close to the mark, and I must have pleased that blessed muse from which divine inspiration is channelled, because it wasn't but a few moments later when I decided to break out in song.
Now this was no ordinary song. This was not a song which I had heard before. I did not sing the main chorus and then rapidly begin going quiet as the next verse, which I never know, comes along. No this time, the song came completly from my own head.
Unlike other times when I'm making up a song, I didn't try to stop and think of a word that rhymes with "Mechanical" or whatever other word I had used. This time, the rhyming word just came to me. I managed to sing a 2 verses and a chorus before I began to be at a loss for words. But that was long enough for me to spend the rest of the day coming up with a completly evil poem about a certain someone I live with and his vocal shortcomings.
Needless to say I was thoroughly entertained during this time I spent alone with my paintbrush and roller. Unfortunatly I had nothing to write this down on, and now most of it has been forgotten. I guess i'm lucky that it was the kinda poem i'd be "talked with" about, and probably would've caused more problems in the long run if I'd written it down.
Well this is just my little example of how inspiration comes at strange times. Maybe that's the way it works with blogging. Maybe occasionally I'll be inspired and write down a masterpiece of biblical proportions. But for now i'll just make do with whatever comes.

Nothing of particular interest

2006-01-10T22:13:00.000-06:00

Man what is there to talk about? Finding things to blog about is the hardest thing in the world. Originally I had assumed that having a life would mean i'd have things to write about. But then I realized that being in a home dosn't automatically mean I have a life. No, I'm gonna have to find one. But that could prove to be a challenge.

The people here are really cool. Some are interesting. Some are less. Some are fun to hang with. Some arn't. The ones who can sing, never do. The ones who can't, won't shutup. The things that are worth hearing must be pulled out. The things that arn't never stop coming. It's a nice contrast I guess. Well my time on the comp is up, and i couldn't think of anything to write. Maybe next time something will come. Until then.

Bob the Builder

2006-01-06T23:28:00.000-06:00

Some people told me that I would regret not taking all the free time I had and using it to do something. Well you may be right in the future, but for now I havn't regretted anything yet. In fact the skill i've been using most here is one which I have known for a long time, and yet not practiced often. They seem to have discovered that i'm decent at "Handyman" type things. So for the last few days i've been doing those kinda things at an old house. It's mostly been painting and heavy lifting. Believe it or not i'm the strongest outta the three 16 year old guys that live here. And they are both older than me. Go figure.
So here's a rundown of what's been my basic day.
Wake up. Eat Breakfast. Have Devotions. Do JJT. Eat early lunch. Go to the house of the SGA couple that lives in our home. Work for 6-9 hours. Go home. Eat a late dinner. Take a Shower. Check my mail. Go to bed.
It's great, I finally DON'T have time on my hands. But I guess that's kinda the point. Ok Time for bed.

My New Blog

2006-01-06T23:13:00.000-06:00

Yes So I finally decided to get my own blog. But I did always say that if I ever got a life I'd get a blog. These kinda things go hand in hand I guess. Now watch the cruel irony take place and i'll not be able to think of anything to write. Anyway i'm mostly just keeping this as a way for my family and friends to keep track of what's going on with me. Oh yeah, for those of you that don't know I'm in a home now. They keep me pretty busy here, even though right now i'm just a visitor. Going through what they call a "Trial Period". This way if they don't like me or I don't like them or whatever, I don't have to stay for a super long time. Ok well, as my first post this is supposed to be momentus. But it's not. I'm tired, I think i'm going to bed.