Last blog was...Friday, so picking up on Saturday. Built a goat-milking stand, and a very sturdy one it is. Mom got some measurements and left 'em with Dad, and he made some upgrades...when he builds things he tends to make them at least 75% stronger than they need to be. If we ever decide to try, say, milking dwarf elephants, we won't need a separate stand. I'd bet money that you could drive on the thing if it were big enough.
Then Mom showed up with a window that she wanted put in the goat barn. (that's ex-horse barn, by the way) So Dad put that in whilst everyone else helped restack the hay that had been unstacked after being...stacked, because apparently it wasn't dry enough and so the bales needed to be spread out.
I sort of ran between everyone, as, with the allergy medicine that I am now allowed to take, I can be in the barn with the hay for ten or fifteen minutes without trouble, but after that it gets uncomfortable.
Did a lot of recording, but didn't actually get anything we were happy with. I need drum heads, and our recording equipment is lousy, add to that the fact that we can both sing, but neither very well, and the fact that with one mike, we can't actually play the song together, we have to play it track by track, one instrument at a time, which ruins the rhythm. Ah well. It's a start, and it is fun to be able to hear ourselves played back.
Sunday...Church. During the Sunday School hour was a ministry fair in which all the ministry groups at work in the church tried to get volunteers. No one actually signed up for anything, as the percussion and sound equipment teams table can attest.
Sunday night was a visit to Peace youthgroup. Don't know if it's for me yet or not. Definitely fun, the lesson got really long though...sitting on the floor for an hour is rather uncomfortable, especially with the trusty back. It doesn't like to stay in one position for a long time, sitting or standing. The platform jousting was great. I might go so far as to say that mine was the most spectacular. While everyone else would just whack each other repeatedly in the same spot, the kid I was battling had a bit more variety in his style. The secret seems to be to hold the...thing near one end, hitting with the long end and blocking with the short one. Did all right. He fell first, and that's the point, so I'm told. Was surprised when the Sentry lost so quickly to some skinny girl.
Tuesday Dad brought the company truck home with a bunch of rejected wooden skids, picked me up and took off to some guy's house to drop it all off. Skids are interesting because they're all different sizes and different kinds of wood. The pine ones you can just snatch up and throw with one hand, but the oak ones take a lot of effort to get over the sides of the truck.
I think fall officially starts today.
Political Rant
So in my government class, I came across a rather long quote from Abraham Lincoln, the shortened version of which says that because the US is big and rich and populated by free people, the rest of the world combined couldn't take it by force, and if destruction be our destiny, then it has to come from the inside. We have to weaken and destroy ourselves.
So then this morning on a political blog that I read regularly there was a bunch of info that the media neglects to mention, basically how an Islamic brotherhood, and a rather large one...basically sounds like every Islamic terrorist in one big convention, released plans fifteen years ago to infiltrate our nation and our government with their people.
We're not known for our ability to prevent unwanted immigrants from...immigrating, and we ARE known for the ease with which a foreigner can climb the ladder of power by screaming 'racism' at everyone who gets in the way.
We saw the results on 9/11 when the hidden terrorist cells living in our country started joyriding airplanes into buildings and lonely Pennsylvanian fields.
It's just scary to see it all put together like that...we're being weakened and destroyed by foreigners...from within.
Governments like money, and immigrants will give it to them if the politicians make laws to make life fair or even more than fair for immigrants.
End Political Rant
SOTD - Nickelback - Far Away
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
Minesweeper: The Movie
Friday seems to be movie day. Today was 'Apocalypto'. About Incas or something. Very long, very boring. I realized quite quickly that if I put the movie in fast forward I can still read the subtitles, and since everything is in whatever it was the Inca spoke, there was no point in listening anyway.
'Red' is still growing on me. Friday is also 'commandeer the stereo' day, so I listened to that for a bit. Cleaned the pond pump again.
SOTD: Red - Already Over (Yeah, I'm gonna go back to linking songs. It's not as if this page is read by the masses...and it's not as if the masses don't have plenty of better places to download music. The links will die automatically after a while anyway.)
'Red' is still growing on me. Friday is also 'commandeer the stereo' day, so I listened to that for a bit. Cleaned the pond pump again.
SOTD: Red - Already Over (Yeah, I'm gonna go back to linking songs. It's not as if this page is read by the masses...and it's not as if the masses don't have plenty of better places to download music. The links will die automatically after a while anyway.)
Thursday, September 13, 2007
The Wind And The Echo
I think is was Tuesday that was really windy...bike riding was interesting into the wind. Even when coasting down a hill, the wind could bring you to a standstill. I love it. Fall is the perfect temperature, the days look warm, but not glaring, there's always a breeze, the colors are nice, but I like the green part of fall best. Don't get all technical and tell me when fall starts. I say it's fall.
Bethany and I have been recording some music. Right now having a mike on her guitar makes her nervous and she exchanges her sense of rhythm for some sort of temperamental roller coaster. It's getting there.
Other than that things have been pretty routine. Started science this week. It's not bad. I'm not enthralled by it, but it's necessary, and I don't know nearly enough about it. I'm dreading the PSAT.
Went careercruising. There is no such occupation as a voice actor, and I'm not stupid enough to try to get a job as an actor. There are plenty of wannabes standing in line for that as it is. Looks like my second choices are recording technician and chiropractor in that order. As a recording technician I could still possibly get a chance to do some voice work, but I can do what I already know and am good at: mix audio. Would also be involved in the music industry without being in a band, because, as with actors, their are enough bands lined up wanting to be famous as it is. As a chiropractor I could go to school for eight years and then become a doctor without being in intense or high-responsibility situations. I don't want to have someone's life in my hands, and eye/ear doctors and other things like that seem pretty boring to me. Chiropractors basic job of adjusting backs and necks is pretty simple, really, but it counts as a doctor, and everyone loves doctors.
So the point is, I can't voice act to put spaghetti-o's on the table, so I'll never be truly happy in life. :-)
And now I'll just stop because none of us keep up with these things as closely as we used to be able to.
SOTD: Red - Breath Into Me (Wow, these guy remind me of Skillet. They grow on you and they scream with style.)
Honorable mention: Trace Atkins - Every Light In The House Is On (Same old country song. Guy loses girlfriend and complains for a few verses, with a chorus stuck between them.)
Bethany and I have been recording some music. Right now having a mike on her guitar makes her nervous and she exchanges her sense of rhythm for some sort of temperamental roller coaster. It's getting there.
Other than that things have been pretty routine. Started science this week. It's not bad. I'm not enthralled by it, but it's necessary, and I don't know nearly enough about it. I'm dreading the PSAT.
Went careercruising. There is no such occupation as a voice actor, and I'm not stupid enough to try to get a job as an actor. There are plenty of wannabes standing in line for that as it is. Looks like my second choices are recording technician and chiropractor in that order. As a recording technician I could still possibly get a chance to do some voice work, but I can do what I already know and am good at: mix audio. Would also be involved in the music industry without being in a band, because, as with actors, their are enough bands lined up wanting to be famous as it is. As a chiropractor I could go to school for eight years and then become a doctor without being in intense or high-responsibility situations. I don't want to have someone's life in my hands, and eye/ear doctors and other things like that seem pretty boring to me. Chiropractors basic job of adjusting backs and necks is pretty simple, really, but it counts as a doctor, and everyone loves doctors.
So the point is, I can't voice act to put spaghetti-o's on the table, so I'll never be truly happy in life. :-)
And now I'll just stop because none of us keep up with these things as closely as we used to be able to.
SOTD: Red - Breath Into Me (Wow, these guy remind me of Skillet. They grow on you and they scream with style.)
Honorable mention: Trace Atkins - Every Light In The House Is On (Same old country song. Guy loses girlfriend and complains for a few verses, with a chorus stuck between them.)
Friday, September 7, 2007
The Spartans And The Persians
You'll never guess by the title what I'm blogging about...
Watched the movie '300' today. It wasn't what I had expected, but that's all right, because I had expected far less. It was a pretty cool movie, though not for the usual reasons. As a sort of opening comment though, I'm not recommending it. Whenever there was blood, there was a lot of it, and whenever there was a beheading (and there were a few) you get a very gruesome angle of the inside of their head, with their jugular spurting blood everywhere. Also, whenever they can think of a reason to flash boobs, they do so; when they can't think of any reason, they flash them anyway. It's hard to tell for sure whether that's a problem or not, as most of the men look very womanly with their long curly hair, black leather panty-things that seem to make up approximately 10% of their uniform (the other 90% are their capes), and beards. Plus they call the queen a warrior all the time.
It's a historical movie, so the plot's no secret. The directors waste no time on it. They just start out with some killing and keep cranking up the size of the opposing parties until everyone dies. It's a war movie. That's what they're supposed to do.
But at about this point, whoever was in charge took a look at the list of things a historical war movie was supposed to contain, said 'What the...', and beat it senseless with his shield.
The music in the dramatic bits is some sort of overdriven guitar and drum kit rock music. Which is sweet. I've had enough of the whiny Arab-sounding music that usually go into the dramatic parts of such movies. (though they gave in and played a bit at the end)
There were virtually no sets, the entire thing minus the actors (and not even all of them) was pretty much computer-generated. The only color ever really used is brown. Everything is always brown. The rocks, the sky, the grass, the water, the elephants, and the beards. Except for that guy who got his eye stabbed out, his was more of a yellow-ish tan color.
The combat scenes switch in and out of slow-motion rather quickly, but it's a cool effect overall. I've always liked action movies that mixed high-speed and slow-motion shots. Am I the only one who starts laughing in 'The Patriot' when, after ten minutes of dramatic battle, Mel Gibson is still running and screaming and killing and waving flags about in slow motion? Quite.
And there's blood everywhere. Lots and lots of blood. No more of this whimpy 'stab people and the camera conveniently misses most of the gory bits', every time someone gets maimed again, you get to see it in detail. It was kinda cool.
The best part of the entire movie was the sarcasm though. Sure, everyone saw the bit on the commercials where, after a Persian Emissary says 'Our arrows shall, like, blot out the sun and crap, yo?' one of the soldiers (no one every remembers the names of anyone in war movies) says 'Then we shall fight in the shade', and it's generally outrageously cool, but they say stuff like that all the time in the movie.
After battling since sunrise, the two generals meet:
Xerxes: "I find Spartan culture so fascinating. We could be great allies, and share much with each other. Join us. It is your destiny."
The Spartan King Feller (Leotardis or something. All Greek names sound the same to me): "Haven't you noticed, we've been sharing our culture all morning."
It really is quite funny. Sentry especially, you'll get a real kick out of all the sarcasm.
Oh, and the Persians had grenades.
Nothing I can say would sound cooler after that.
What I did today besides watch 300: Play Skillet on the big stereo while everyone shopped. The kitchen floor isn't nearly as stable as I had previously believed it to be.
SOTD: Skillet - A Little More
Watched the movie '300' today. It wasn't what I had expected, but that's all right, because I had expected far less. It was a pretty cool movie, though not for the usual reasons. As a sort of opening comment though, I'm not recommending it. Whenever there was blood, there was a lot of it, and whenever there was a beheading (and there were a few) you get a very gruesome angle of the inside of their head, with their jugular spurting blood everywhere. Also, whenever they can think of a reason to flash boobs, they do so; when they can't think of any reason, they flash them anyway. It's hard to tell for sure whether that's a problem or not, as most of the men look very womanly with their long curly hair, black leather panty-things that seem to make up approximately 10% of their uniform (the other 90% are their capes), and beards. Plus they call the queen a warrior all the time.
It's a historical movie, so the plot's no secret. The directors waste no time on it. They just start out with some killing and keep cranking up the size of the opposing parties until everyone dies. It's a war movie. That's what they're supposed to do.
But at about this point, whoever was in charge took a look at the list of things a historical war movie was supposed to contain, said 'What the...', and beat it senseless with his shield.
The music in the dramatic bits is some sort of overdriven guitar and drum kit rock music. Which is sweet. I've had enough of the whiny Arab-sounding music that usually go into the dramatic parts of such movies. (though they gave in and played a bit at the end)
There were virtually no sets, the entire thing minus the actors (and not even all of them) was pretty much computer-generated. The only color ever really used is brown. Everything is always brown. The rocks, the sky, the grass, the water, the elephants, and the beards. Except for that guy who got his eye stabbed out, his was more of a yellow-ish tan color.
The combat scenes switch in and out of slow-motion rather quickly, but it's a cool effect overall. I've always liked action movies that mixed high-speed and slow-motion shots. Am I the only one who starts laughing in 'The Patriot' when, after ten minutes of dramatic battle, Mel Gibson is still running and screaming and killing and waving flags about in slow motion? Quite.
And there's blood everywhere. Lots and lots of blood. No more of this whimpy 'stab people and the camera conveniently misses most of the gory bits', every time someone gets maimed again, you get to see it in detail. It was kinda cool.
The best part of the entire movie was the sarcasm though. Sure, everyone saw the bit on the commercials where, after a Persian Emissary says 'Our arrows shall, like, blot out the sun and crap, yo?' one of the soldiers (no one every remembers the names of anyone in war movies) says 'Then we shall fight in the shade', and it's generally outrageously cool, but they say stuff like that all the time in the movie.
After battling since sunrise, the two generals meet:
Xerxes: "I find Spartan culture so fascinating. We could be great allies, and share much with each other. Join us. It is your destiny."
The Spartan King Feller (Leotardis or something. All Greek names sound the same to me): "Haven't you noticed, we've been sharing our culture all morning."
It really is quite funny. Sentry especially, you'll get a real kick out of all the sarcasm.
Oh, and the Persians had grenades.
Nothing I can say would sound cooler after that.
What I did today besides watch 300: Play Skillet on the big stereo while everyone shopped. The kitchen floor isn't nearly as stable as I had previously believed it to be.
SOTD: Skillet - A Little More
Thursday, September 6, 2007
The Wheelchairs And The Hills
School has gotten almost as difficult as it's going to get all year. Still don't have my science books yet, but otherwise, everything's going smoothly. I've got lots more free time than I've had in previous years.
Math hasn't bothered with reviews this year, which has been slightly difficult, but it's coming back pretty quickly. Trigonometry. It's like an old friend. The kind you hope doesn't recognize you.
Classical languages is both fun and easy. Learning Latin and Greek roots is really useful, because with them you can work out the meaning of just about any big word you come across. Any English word anyway. You can also make up words for things that sound real and have actual relevant meaning.
I don't care for the History book's slant. If Christians were terrorists who killed everyone who didn't believe, the author would be their king. A tad too fanatical for me. I'd rather have an objective history book than a Christian-biased one. Just as with any biased history book, they tend to go overboard and only tell half the story.
Drumming is drumming. Getting fast on the bass-pedal, which always sounds sweet, and usually makes up a good portion of professional drum solos, but losing a bit of coordination with fills and time-keeping.
Government and Economy is crazy fun. That's my summer subject. Bought the books for myself and read many of them on my own time. Now I get to keep doing it and get credits for it. How cool is that?
Hair cut on Wednesday morning. Decided I've always wanted to try shaving it all off and going Vin Diesel. Perfect time of year for it, won't get sunburned, won't freeze.
So I did.
So far I really like it. Not so warm, though if I plan to sweat I need to definitely wear a hat. It'll grow back before the winter gets really cold, unless I decide to keep it this way, which is quite likely. It's great.
Stopping by the neighbor's every afternoon after school to push their daughter's wheelchair up their driveway. Sentry, you remember the McBrides, right? They live right next door, see, and I'm not sure what was the deal, but their daughter is growth-stunted, can't talk, and doesn't seem to have a whole lot of motor control. One of her parents is having back problems and the other has had some sort of massive triple-hernia surgery, so neither of them can push her wheelchair up the hill to her house. It's fun to wait for the bus with her dad though, he's really smart. Showing me how he built the hydraulic lift for her wheelchair to get into the house, or explaining ways to make environmentally-safe insecticides, or giving examples of different systems of well-pumps. It's cool.
Then yesterday Tim called up and wanted some help moving. I'm not even going to try to make sense of the mechanics of his life, but from what I could pick up, we were moving his hunting and fishing stuff from his old girlfriend's house to his new girlfriend's house, who lives across the street from me. Other than all his landscaping equipment, pretty much all he owns is hunting and fishing stuff, but he's got boatloads of it. Luckily he packs things mostly in plastic tubs, so it was really pretty easy. Hour and a half later, ten bucks richer, plus ten from last time I worked for him. He pays sporadically.
The most exciting bit was when I was backing his truck up. Was doing just fine, going slow because he loves his lawn, had it all under control, he decides to start directing me. Okay, fine, it's his house, his truck, he says keep going backwards I'll keep going backwards, it looks all clear, though one of his side-mirrors has been broken for months. So up into the garden I go, and he's still nodding like a bobble-head and waving me farther back.
Then I hit something.
He keeps directing me back for a second, then stops, smiles and nods, and starts unloading.
What the heck?
So I jump out and head to the back...he directed me directly into a large rock in his garden. Luckily for him it was the tire that hit, so no damage was done to the truck, the rock just got shoved back a bit.
He's not the sort of person I would hang out with by choice, but I don't mind his money. :)
Skipping back to Monday, drove into town to pick up some huge lava rock a guy from Dad's work wanted to be rid of. Well I've never seen a lava rock this big. If it was hollow, you could probably fit two people in it. Or one average American. It was heavy, and sharp. Dad, being the maniac he is, had to be reminded by someone to put on gloves so he didn't slice his hands apart. No one else was around to do it, so that was me. Lava rock is sharp. We still both ended up with some scraped-up arms, Dad's being by far the worst, because the guy who lived there kept trying to help and getting in the way. Between Dad pushing as hard as he could and this guy sort of stumbling around, I felt safer and more useful clearing stuff out of the way as they rolled it to the truck. The guy who lives there is cool, and really nice, but not much good at moving rocks, it would seem. Big chore getting it into the truck, ended up using ramps to roll it on.
Then once we were one the road Dad got down to the trivial business of figuring out where he's going to put it. lol. Stopped for Frosty's at Wendy's on the way home. We picked out a nice spot by the hot tub for the rock.
I'd post the really good stuff, but I'd rather y'all just be driven crazy with suspense wondering what it could be.
FTTDOTD: Walmart undercuts the American economy by carrying merchandise manufactured entirely overseas, which it can then sell for lower prices than other stores whilst still making a profit. Great idea, business-wise, but screwing the world's greatest superpower while they're at it. (Mom is a major conspiracy theory hunter, and she dug all this up) Anyway, so here's what you do. Walmart carries everything, right? So put on a black coat and sunglasses, grab a cart, and fill it with wire, wire-cutters, needle-nosed pliers, clocks, rubbing alcohol, toilet-cleaner, bleach, duct-tape, light-switches, and remote-control car parts if you can find any. Wheel the cart over towards the checkout, but don't get in line. Start digging conspicuously through the cart and fiddling with things. Make sure that at some point you start a nice loud clock ticking. Then yell 'CRAP!' and run out the door, abandoning the cart where it sits.
PS: Don't really do this, unless you LIKE jail.
SOTD: Deirks Bentley - Long Trip Alone (Cool song, sticks in your head.)
Math hasn't bothered with reviews this year, which has been slightly difficult, but it's coming back pretty quickly. Trigonometry. It's like an old friend. The kind you hope doesn't recognize you.
Classical languages is both fun and easy. Learning Latin and Greek roots is really useful, because with them you can work out the meaning of just about any big word you come across. Any English word anyway. You can also make up words for things that sound real and have actual relevant meaning.
I don't care for the History book's slant. If Christians were terrorists who killed everyone who didn't believe, the author would be their king. A tad too fanatical for me. I'd rather have an objective history book than a Christian-biased one. Just as with any biased history book, they tend to go overboard and only tell half the story.
Drumming is drumming. Getting fast on the bass-pedal, which always sounds sweet, and usually makes up a good portion of professional drum solos, but losing a bit of coordination with fills and time-keeping.
Government and Economy is crazy fun. That's my summer subject. Bought the books for myself and read many of them on my own time. Now I get to keep doing it and get credits for it. How cool is that?
Hair cut on Wednesday morning. Decided I've always wanted to try shaving it all off and going Vin Diesel. Perfect time of year for it, won't get sunburned, won't freeze.
So I did.
So far I really like it. Not so warm, though if I plan to sweat I need to definitely wear a hat. It'll grow back before the winter gets really cold, unless I decide to keep it this way, which is quite likely. It's great.
Stopping by the neighbor's every afternoon after school to push their daughter's wheelchair up their driveway. Sentry, you remember the McBrides, right? They live right next door, see, and I'm not sure what was the deal, but their daughter is growth-stunted, can't talk, and doesn't seem to have a whole lot of motor control. One of her parents is having back problems and the other has had some sort of massive triple-hernia surgery, so neither of them can push her wheelchair up the hill to her house. It's fun to wait for the bus with her dad though, he's really smart. Showing me how he built the hydraulic lift for her wheelchair to get into the house, or explaining ways to make environmentally-safe insecticides, or giving examples of different systems of well-pumps. It's cool.
Then yesterday Tim called up and wanted some help moving. I'm not even going to try to make sense of the mechanics of his life, but from what I could pick up, we were moving his hunting and fishing stuff from his old girlfriend's house to his new girlfriend's house, who lives across the street from me. Other than all his landscaping equipment, pretty much all he owns is hunting and fishing stuff, but he's got boatloads of it. Luckily he packs things mostly in plastic tubs, so it was really pretty easy. Hour and a half later, ten bucks richer, plus ten from last time I worked for him. He pays sporadically.
The most exciting bit was when I was backing his truck up. Was doing just fine, going slow because he loves his lawn, had it all under control, he decides to start directing me. Okay, fine, it's his house, his truck, he says keep going backwards I'll keep going backwards, it looks all clear, though one of his side-mirrors has been broken for months. So up into the garden I go, and he's still nodding like a bobble-head and waving me farther back.
Then I hit something.
He keeps directing me back for a second, then stops, smiles and nods, and starts unloading.
What the heck?
So I jump out and head to the back...he directed me directly into a large rock in his garden. Luckily for him it was the tire that hit, so no damage was done to the truck, the rock just got shoved back a bit.
He's not the sort of person I would hang out with by choice, but I don't mind his money. :)
Skipping back to Monday, drove into town to pick up some huge lava rock a guy from Dad's work wanted to be rid of. Well I've never seen a lava rock this big. If it was hollow, you could probably fit two people in it. Or one average American. It was heavy, and sharp. Dad, being the maniac he is, had to be reminded by someone to put on gloves so he didn't slice his hands apart. No one else was around to do it, so that was me. Lava rock is sharp. We still both ended up with some scraped-up arms, Dad's being by far the worst, because the guy who lived there kept trying to help and getting in the way. Between Dad pushing as hard as he could and this guy sort of stumbling around, I felt safer and more useful clearing stuff out of the way as they rolled it to the truck. The guy who lives there is cool, and really nice, but not much good at moving rocks, it would seem. Big chore getting it into the truck, ended up using ramps to roll it on.
Then once we were one the road Dad got down to the trivial business of figuring out where he's going to put it. lol. Stopped for Frosty's at Wendy's on the way home. We picked out a nice spot by the hot tub for the rock.
I'd post the really good stuff, but I'd rather y'all just be driven crazy with suspense wondering what it could be.
FTTDOTD: Walmart undercuts the American economy by carrying merchandise manufactured entirely overseas, which it can then sell for lower prices than other stores whilst still making a profit. Great idea, business-wise, but screwing the world's greatest superpower while they're at it. (Mom is a major conspiracy theory hunter, and she dug all this up) Anyway, so here's what you do. Walmart carries everything, right? So put on a black coat and sunglasses, grab a cart, and fill it with wire, wire-cutters, needle-nosed pliers, clocks, rubbing alcohol, toilet-cleaner, bleach, duct-tape, light-switches, and remote-control car parts if you can find any. Wheel the cart over towards the checkout, but don't get in line. Start digging conspicuously through the cart and fiddling with things. Make sure that at some point you start a nice loud clock ticking. Then yell 'CRAP!' and run out the door, abandoning the cart where it sits.
PS: Don't really do this, unless you LIKE jail.
SOTD: Deirks Bentley - Long Trip Alone (Cool song, sticks in your head.)
Monday, September 3, 2007
The Shooting And The Camping
Friday, brought a bunch of books to Grandma's. Had to go. Apparently her answering machine was full. She kept asking if she needed to buy a new tape. It was digital, of course, and had far more buttons than any answering machine has any business having. Had to explain to Mom that I can't tell her how to do it, because I don't know how, and I'd be figuring it out as I went.
She had unplugged it to use a different phone. I don't know why. Being unplugged for a few days had successfully wiped all the messages, so after plugging it in and recording a message on it, I was done, with seven hours ahead of me to fill. Finished 'The Good Old Days: They Were Terrible' All about...er...the good old days. Victorian-ish. Late eighteen hundreds mostly. Little House On The Prairie, etc. All the reasons people idealize it and all the horrible things about it. 'Twas actually a pretty sucky time to live, if I may say so. Sorry Laura. Was a pretty cool book, but only because I'm slightly interested in government, and because it added lots of arguments for me to use on people who are in love with horses.
Replaced the radio in my truck. Something was wrong with it, don't know what, but we keep a pile of Chrysler spare radios because they generally don't last, so now I can play all my favorite cassettes when I'm driving...My favorite is the one with a cord coming out of it. The cord that plugs into my MP3 player.
Saturday we went to a sweet new junkyard Dad's been hearing about. All cars up on blocks organized in rows by make. Just find a car similar to yours with the part you want and pull it off. They charge virtually nothing for the parts. It's kinda neat to see some of the cars, and work out why they were scrapped. Usually it's pretty easy. They've been rolled, or set on fire, or rammed or whatever. Saw a Porsche and a coupla BMWs, but no American sports cars. Boatloads of Chrysler Minivans. We were looking for hubcaps and speakers for the convertible. Ended up with seventeen hubcaps. (Yeah. That's an odd number, in case no one noticed. Dad collects them and hangs them in the barn still. Speaking of which, I need to get new pictures of the hub cap wall.) Something like ten speakers from various cars. Spent a lot of time peaking under the trunk of each car to see if they had aftermarket speakers. (aftermarket being anything but the standard ones) Also ended up with two more spare radios. It was pretty fun. Lots of people climbing around the wrecked cars taking parts off of them. The place must've covered six acres or more.
Shot the .22s. Had a bunch of old ammunition that Dad got from Grandpa. They're older than Dad. Just a tiny bit corroded. They sound different, they smell different, they're very individualistic when it comes to deciding which direction they go in after they leave the barrel. Translation: "I hit the paper again! Sweet!" They also jam a lot. Only in the semi-automatic rifles of course. Translation: (sister) "Kenny has to pull that lever after every shot? That's weird...Dad, my gun won't shoot again." Bolt-actions don't jam, boys and girls. Semi-automatics jam a lot. It was mostly the old ammo, but still. With practice I can shoot almost as fast anyway. Then we oiled them all, 'cause being stored in the basement, mine rusts fast.
Getting up at a different time than I did over the summer for school has had a rather interesting side effect. Since I always go to bed at nearly the same time, every morning I wake up during the part of the sleeping cycle where I'm dreaming, so my brain is a total mess as to what has actually happened this week and what hasn't happened. No real nightmares, but there have been a disturbing one or two. Gonna have to get up later I think, 'cause I end up being tired and confused all day.
Other events just add to the swirl of 'did that really happen?' thoughts. :D
What I've done is taken to wearing a rubber band on my arm. That way when I start wondering what's happened and what hasn't, I can snap myself. As a bonus, I get to toy with it constantly. I've already lost one and broken another, but hey.
Camped out on Saturday. Had beef hot dogs for once instead of turkey. The turkey ones are cheaper and healthier, but they generally taste pretty nasty. We didn't play 'spoons'. We always play spoons when we camp, but this time they skipped it.
Made pancakes in the morning. Had the griddle too hot, had to toss the first few. Lovely burnt shell on the outside, nice, gooey pancake batter in the middle. Also made a small batch without an egg. They looked and tasted pretty uncool. Always put an egg in the pancake mix, if for no other reason that coloring. I broke it with one hand without even thinking about it on the main batch though. :)
Took a really long bike ride with Dad this morning. The poor guy is a bit out of shape I think. Less than halfway there and he was telling me how his legs were rubber. Went all around the lake, even up a new road I haven't been on, but definitely need to take pictures on.
Then had an extreme superfast drum session toward noon. It was sweet.
SOTD: The Calling - Wherever You Will Go
FTTDOTD: Grin manically for any reason you can think of.
She had unplugged it to use a different phone. I don't know why. Being unplugged for a few days had successfully wiped all the messages, so after plugging it in and recording a message on it, I was done, with seven hours ahead of me to fill. Finished 'The Good Old Days: They Were Terrible' All about...er...the good old days. Victorian-ish. Late eighteen hundreds mostly. Little House On The Prairie, etc. All the reasons people idealize it and all the horrible things about it. 'Twas actually a pretty sucky time to live, if I may say so. Sorry Laura. Was a pretty cool book, but only because I'm slightly interested in government, and because it added lots of arguments for me to use on people who are in love with horses.
Replaced the radio in my truck. Something was wrong with it, don't know what, but we keep a pile of Chrysler spare radios because they generally don't last, so now I can play all my favorite cassettes when I'm driving...My favorite is the one with a cord coming out of it. The cord that plugs into my MP3 player.
Saturday we went to a sweet new junkyard Dad's been hearing about. All cars up on blocks organized in rows by make. Just find a car similar to yours with the part you want and pull it off. They charge virtually nothing for the parts. It's kinda neat to see some of the cars, and work out why they were scrapped. Usually it's pretty easy. They've been rolled, or set on fire, or rammed or whatever. Saw a Porsche and a coupla BMWs, but no American sports cars. Boatloads of Chrysler Minivans. We were looking for hubcaps and speakers for the convertible. Ended up with seventeen hubcaps. (Yeah. That's an odd number, in case no one noticed. Dad collects them and hangs them in the barn still. Speaking of which, I need to get new pictures of the hub cap wall.) Something like ten speakers from various cars. Spent a lot of time peaking under the trunk of each car to see if they had aftermarket speakers. (aftermarket being anything but the standard ones) Also ended up with two more spare radios. It was pretty fun. Lots of people climbing around the wrecked cars taking parts off of them. The place must've covered six acres or more.
Shot the .22s. Had a bunch of old ammunition that Dad got from Grandpa. They're older than Dad. Just a tiny bit corroded. They sound different, they smell different, they're very individualistic when it comes to deciding which direction they go in after they leave the barrel. Translation: "I hit the paper again! Sweet!" They also jam a lot. Only in the semi-automatic rifles of course. Translation: (sister) "Kenny has to pull that lever after every shot? That's weird...Dad, my gun won't shoot again." Bolt-actions don't jam, boys and girls. Semi-automatics jam a lot. It was mostly the old ammo, but still. With practice I can shoot almost as fast anyway. Then we oiled them all, 'cause being stored in the basement, mine rusts fast.
Getting up at a different time than I did over the summer for school has had a rather interesting side effect. Since I always go to bed at nearly the same time, every morning I wake up during the part of the sleeping cycle where I'm dreaming, so my brain is a total mess as to what has actually happened this week and what hasn't happened. No real nightmares, but there have been a disturbing one or two. Gonna have to get up later I think, 'cause I end up being tired and confused all day.
Other events just add to the swirl of 'did that really happen?' thoughts. :D
What I've done is taken to wearing a rubber band on my arm. That way when I start wondering what's happened and what hasn't, I can snap myself. As a bonus, I get to toy with it constantly. I've already lost one and broken another, but hey.
Camped out on Saturday. Had beef hot dogs for once instead of turkey. The turkey ones are cheaper and healthier, but they generally taste pretty nasty. We didn't play 'spoons'. We always play spoons when we camp, but this time they skipped it.
Made pancakes in the morning. Had the griddle too hot, had to toss the first few. Lovely burnt shell on the outside, nice, gooey pancake batter in the middle. Also made a small batch without an egg. They looked and tasted pretty uncool. Always put an egg in the pancake mix, if for no other reason that coloring. I broke it with one hand without even thinking about it on the main batch though. :)
Took a really long bike ride with Dad this morning. The poor guy is a bit out of shape I think. Less than halfway there and he was telling me how his legs were rubber. Went all around the lake, even up a new road I haven't been on, but definitely need to take pictures on.
Then had an extreme superfast drum session toward noon. It was sweet.
SOTD: The Calling - Wherever You Will Go
FTTDOTD: Grin manically for any reason you can think of.
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