Poker Night

Basically we played poker for half an hour and then turned it into a "whatever card game we want to play night". It was immensely fun and filled with absolutely terrible smartphone grade pictures.

Along with the card games, which included Speed, Kemps, Spoons, and BS, we discovered the sexual nature of Dr. Seuss' writing and I gave Ashly a picture frame.

Just for the record, I was the poker champion at the "boring"  table!

AP English?

     Why is this question one that bothers my mind whenever I think of school?  Everyday I walk into my english class, I think about how an AP English class would benefit my growth as a student.  My english skills are decent, but I believe that the rigor of an AP English class would help them continue to grow.  The only problem is the workload that comes with a class such as this.  I also want to take AP US History, which is apparently the most difficult class at Neuqua.  The workload for that alone is very massive and adding AP English would constitute a ton of homework for those classes alone.  This would give me no time to figure out AP Calculus homework or Honor Physics homework.
     They tell us in high school to take classes that interest us, so that would justify taking AP US History, and I am really interested in science so that constitutes the Honors Physics and AP Calculus.  I believe that my decision will be to take regular English again because AP US History will include analyzing information and writing essays based on it.  This is probably to smart choice because I will actually have some more time to spend figuring out complex ideas in Calculus and remembering Physics formulas.  I won't have to worry about three AP tests and I won't be too stressed.  Sure enough something else could come and change my decision, but for I think the answer is a no.

Driver's License

     On Saturday I finally got my Driver's License and the freedom of driving that comes with it!  My birthday, having been three months ago, was much less exciting because of the absence of this license.  Now I can finally be 16 with all the freedoms to drive myself!  Fortunately for me, my family has three cars for three drivers so I don't have to worry about sharing it and working with conflicting schedules.  The only conflict that does exist is that I don't have a parking spot at school, therefore anything after school has to either involve a bus home or a ride from my mom.  This tends to be easy to work out despite this week of final exams where the scheduling is jumbled.
     Final exams have been the least of my worries this year.  I am hardly studying at all for any of my finals because of my hard work throughout the semester.  My teachers have already taught all the information on it and I've already studied it all so I don't need to study a lot now.  Especially in AP Human Geography, in which I've prepared extensively for the previous unit tests considering I need to know all the information in the course for the AP exam at the end.  The free response questions are looming on the corner and providing me anxiety about this AP exam.  Even the questions on the topics I know don't make sense and I wouldn't know the answers.  We'll see how my preparation is working out as the exam day nears, but for now I can only hope that I'm able to answer the questions on this test.
     Christmas is coming around the corner and my excitement is starting to grow as the week's end nears.  For the weekend, we are going to my Grandma and Grandpa's house for celebration and gift exchange.  I'm especially excited to be part of the White Elephant this year after many years of simply watching.  We're going to come back on Christmas Eve and spend time together as just an immediate family.  That weekend, we're taking a trip up to my cousin's house in Minnesota for skiing and paint-balling and also for a New Year's celebration.  On the first we're headed back here where my plans are getting exciting.  On Wednesday, I'm going to a birthday party for my friend, Thursday is a trip to see the long awaited Les Miserables movie, and Saturday is a rollerblading night.  The fact that I can drive makes things a lot more enjoyable because I don't have to worry about getting a ride from a parent or coordinating that with them.
     Times are getting enjoyable, and I cannot wait for my finals to be complete.

Gaian Chant

Creation, oh Creation
Mother of beauty,
Create a world in me,
Create good in me,
Create a soul in me,
Give me a friend,
Take away my foes.

Mother of beauty,
Mother of creation,
Watching from above,
Creation, oh Creation.

A Girl Named Amber

The stars shined down on the distant car. A girl looked out the window with tears streaming down her face. Her father was taking her afar.

IMEA

     IMEA was a remarkable experience that I'm very glad to have participated in.  The audition was intense and my preparation seemed to fail during the audition, but the base I created from the extensive practice seemed to be enough to be placed into the amazing band I played with over the weekend.  The pieces we played were "The Patriots", "Sharakan", "Fiesta Del Pacifico", and "Yankee Doodle".  The repertoire was very enjoyable because it was challenging and sounded amazing.  The fast turnaround was unique to my regular band experience because I'm used to spending months with a piece before a concert, not merely a few hours.  It was exciting, but very scary.
     My progress as a musician has been remarkable.  My private teacher remarks at my journey and looks forward to the future when I'm a senior.  I think that playing music is a unique thing because we put in so much work and don't always continue.  My private teacher sees potential in me, but I know I don't want to continue to study music intensely.  The experiences I've had are head starts to a successful future in music, but the experiences I've had were enjoyable.  I didn't try out for CYSO to get better orchestral experience for college and professional music.  I tried out for CYSO to get the experience of playing in an orchestra because I know that opportunities like this are few.  Plus, it's an amazing sounding orchestra that I wanted to make music with!  I've grown as a musician which is an accomplishment that I will always have.  Playing music is great, and it's opened me to a new style of music that I would've never been introduced to without my involvement with band and orchestra.

Writing Contest Excerpt

I saw Ted look at the steed out back with great curiosity for he'd never seen one before. I saw him try to provoke play, but the steed just turned away to continue grazing. Making sure he was safe, I waited for Ted to try one more time to provoke the steed and when his efforts failed I knew I could go to my office to work.

I started typing up my patient report for the brain operation last week, describing what happened and where the patient can go now. It was a groundbreaking operation that should hopefully save lives in the future. People get cancer in their brains and the tumors can cause catastrophe, but removing necessary brain tissue is just as disastrous. We discovered a system of electricity that could send impulses directly to the brain cells and provoke a response from a conscious patient. Our patient was very anxious during the operation considering he was going to be awake for the first half. Just think of the agony ensuing through his mind. "My brain is exposed to the world right now. People are playing with my brain right now. At any moment I will die. I'm going to die. At any moment my thoughts will become jumbled when they cut my brain out and I'll die. I don't want to die."

I started the home preparations section of the report when I heard Cassie scream my name from the kitchen. She told me to come quick so I pushed away from my desk and ran into the kitchen.

"What is he doing?!" she screamed while looking out the window at Ted who was taking his pants off and approaching the steed's rear. I ran outside and down the porch steps.

"I love you Mr. Cow, oh yes I do. We are going to live together and create a happy family. You, Sandra, Peter and me, Mr. Teddy"