If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. - J. R. R. Tolkien

Yeah, I'm kinda hungry right now and I really want an Orange Julius.

Ha, I started out having a really bad day, but it got progressively better and ended up just being super good by the end! Pro Cantorum actually sounded pretty good today, I was able to practice my piano today during my TA period and made progressin the song, I ate two boxes of Nerds at lunch, and I played Connect Four during math class with Shawn. What could be better than all that? Could it be, shopping? After school I went with my mother down to the outlet mall and bought a couple new shirts and a sweater. Yay!

So, I had a good day, and now that I found the recipe for Orange Julius online, I think I'm going to go make one.

For the world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. - J. R. R. Tolkien

I'll spare you the boring details about my classes because none of them were particularly interesting today. I still don't know what's up with me, I just feel like something is changing, and I'm still totally oblivious to what it is. It might just be my view on something in particular, or my view on life, or all of me. I'm totally in the dark here and all I can do is pray that God will shed some light on the situation.

Anyway, you people aren't here to read my sob stories, you want to be entertained! So in light of the rather odd dreams I've been having as of late, here is a site to help you "Uncover the secrets of your sleep". I think it's a kind of interesting theory, but I'd love to see your thoughts on it. :D

Change your thoughts and you change your world. -Norman Vincent Peale

Unfortunately, this is not always a good thing.

FBLA State was pretty fun. I went hot-tubbing with Rachel and Ashley, went shopping with Diana and Kristi....all kinds of good stuff. I got my Introduction to Business and Introduction to Business Communications tests done quickly spent the rest of the three days shadowing either Rachel or Kristi. I avoided many social gatherings (including the two dances) in favor of reading a book and was later mocked for this.

Last night I was "allowed" to be a voting delegate, but it was ok because I didn't have to walk across the bridge to that horrible restaurant. There was a downside to my being a voting delegate, but it really had nothing to do with the nature of the job, merely the people I enjoyed it with. Ah well, c'est la vie.

This morning started off strangely when I had this extremely odd dream....I really can't explain it save to say my piano teacher was there and a friend from school and now I'm kinda confused........ After quickly getting dressed and stowing our things in Stern's room, the entire RHS FBLA crew made our way to the closing ceremony for the state leadership conference. It was three and a half hours of mind-numbing tedium. Of course, there where the lovely breaks in the monotony when people from RHS did really well and I got to stand up and cheer for them, but in between those times I found solace in the comfort of my lovely book. I didn't get into the top ten in either of my events, but that's cool, I didn't really want to go to Denver anyway, I'd rather take voice lessons this summer or maybe get a job.

After returning home from my little trip I spent a little time returning to reality at home and then headed over to RHS to catch the tail-end of my Gov./Econ. class and then go to math. Math was not that bad, not that good, but when I got home I found myself feeling odd. I feel kinda disappointed that I didn't even make top ten in FBLA even though I knew I'd done my best, and I'm really confused about certain things in my life. My brain seems to be changin' itself up without telling me and is leaving me feeling a bit distraught. Something odd is going on way back in my subconscious that is making me feel a little out of it. I should probably just sit back, relax, and wait for this whole thing to blow over, but I really just wish I knew what my brain is hiding from me. It'd be nice to actually know and understand what's going on in my own head.....

So, if you see me in the halls and I look a little down, i"m ok, I just need therapy...or a good nap....

Lord, what fools these mortals be! - William Shakespeare

Honestly, what is it with you people!? I mean really..............

Actually, I really have nothing to complain about, (not that I ever do) I actually had a really good day! This morning I got to miss my first period class and half of my French class in favor of singing in choir for the OSU chamber choir director who then gave us some pointers on our pieces for league on April 13th. After we finished our pieces we all took a seat and got to listen to the chamber choir and an a cappella group from OSU. While the chamber choir was excellent, (they pretty much put Pro Cantorum to shame) I really want to talk about the a cappella group.

The group was called Outspoken and was comprised totally of men. Not only did they sound good, they were funny and they really got into their music. They reminded me a lot of the a cappella group that some guys from our church (and other churches in the area) started called Rescue. I really enjoyed the performance. Outspoken apparently has a CD coming out this month and I'm defiantly going to be picking it up.

After the performances I headed to class and had a boring old time. My French teacher tried to be "cute" by telling our class we had a test on Monday for the chapter we just started this week. It was her weak attempt at an April Fool's joke. I wanted to hurt her.

Nothing else really happened at school that merits mentioning.....oh yeah! I almost forgot! My Badminton partner and I have 5:0 losing streak as of 7th period today. I'm so proud.....

Since getting home I haven't really done anything super constructive (or very interesting for that matter) with my time. AT about 6:00 PM my parents took Nathan to the airport. He's going to Washington for the next few days to compete somehow for a full-ride scholarship to Whitworth in Spokane. While, the folks were gone I spent my time taking the Emode Classic IQ Test. The first time I took it my score was acceptable, it was in the 130's which is "superior" but that didn't satisfy me. I knew that a 140 or higher was genius level, and I wasn't about to let myself miss the opportunity to claim genius-hood by a few points, so I decided to re-take the test. I knew I hadn't really done my best on the test the first time, giving up on tough questions quickly, so I really wanted to redo the test. After two more attempts I reached my goal, my score is a lovely 142 which (in case you didn't know) is near-genius to genius level. Needless to say, I'm quite pleased.

I think you folks should all take the quiz and share your results. I'd be really interested to hear some of the scores, it might be...interesting.......

"In accordance with our principles of free enterprise and healthy competition, I'm going to ask you...to fight to the death for it." - Monty Python

The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts. - John Locke

Phew, I survived the family invasion! Ok, so in all seriousness, I actually had fun this weekend. Sure, sometimes I wanted nothing better than to run far far away, but there were some serious fun times to be had this weekend.

My Aunt Janice and her two children Allison (9-ish) and Nick (11-ish) arrived at out house Thursday afternoon. We didn't do much that afternoon except walk down to the high school and hang out at Imagination Station for a while. We were out just long enough to experience some true Oregon weather. (You know the drill, pouring one minute, clear and fine the next.) Friday everyone except myself headed up to Timberline Lodge and nice ride on the MAX. I stayed home to correct math papers and get myself some peace and quiet. I watched Sea Biscuit, talked on AIM for a while and had a generally good time. Saturday everyone except Nathan headed down the end of the Oregon Trail Museum where we explored for a couple of hours, then we all headed over to Clackamous Town Center where my cousin Nick was allowed to choose his own birthday present and my mom bought me a new Tankini bathing suit. After our quick shopping adventure we headed home, only to head out once again for church.

Sunday we all went down to the beach together. We first went to the Astoria Column were I quickly re-discovered my intense hatred of heights and, after a less-than-comfortable climb up the 164 steps, I made my way back down feeling rather sick and almost of the verge of tears. After this fiasco we all made our way to a Lewis and Clark Museum in Washington where we hung out, learned stuff and had a generally good time, although I'm not sure I really enjoyed the part where my dad and brother decided to "make sport" of me and chase me down a steep walkway throwing pinecones at me. After that we made our way to Seaside where my cousins finally got stick their feet in the Pacific Ocean. By this time it was starting to get rather late and we began the less-than-stimulating treck home. (Of course stopping for dinner at the infamous "Camp 18" where I was given a "dinner roll" the size of a small loaf of bread.)

Janice and the kids left for home today while I was at school and life seems to be returning to "normal". (If you want to call my life normal) The school day was pretty good, I had an interesting debate on religion in math class and also enjoyed pleasant conversation on the side with a few of my friends in the class whilst diligently pecking away at my math homework. After school I got my haircut and I think the new cut is super-cute, so that's always good.

Oh yeah, I found this little bit of randomness and I thought I'd share.

Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. - Miriam Beard

W00! I'm back! I have traveled to the far-off land of California and have lived to tell the tale, yay!

Ok, so in all seriousness, I haven't really posted since last Tuesday, so here's the run-down of everything that's been going on since then:

Wednesday (17th): Mr. Frick visited Pro Cantorum and will officially be teaching us again starting this next Monday. The choir as a whole seems to have very mixed emotions about this, we're all glad Mr. Frick is better now and can come back to work, but we all feel like Mrs. Bohart has worked so hard that she should get to direct us at the rest of the competitions at least, it's happy and sad all at the same time....
Thursday (18th): I had a major nervous breakdown this day, my French teacher was being rather unreasonable and was stressing me out and then in Biology I forgot all of my supplies for the lab we were doing that day and had a bit of a freak out, let's just say I spent the rest of the class period laying on the floor listing everything I'd rather be doing at that moment. It was quite amusing and helped me recover "my sanity". After school our family piled into our car and headed off to the wilds of California for some vacationing. We talked some and listened to music before going to a motel and turning in for the night.
Friday (19th): Sitting in the car started getting really boring. I don't even remember anything about the whole day that's worth mentioning.
Saturday (20th): Universal Studios! W00! Yup, that was good fun, a very entertaining park I must say. But word to the wise, if you're going to Universal Studios and plan on riding Jurassic Park, don't bother with your hair or anything like that. I know from experience, there's no point. That night we arrived at our Great-Aunt and Uncle's house and had an enjoyable time just sittin' around talkin'.
Sunday (21st): Went to church with our relatives and had more fun being at church and having conversation. It was interesting how similar their church was to my home church GSCC. After church we had lunch and then my parents headed off to Vanguard with Nathan while I stayed home and finished off The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (a superb piece of literature by the way) and hung out with my Great-Aunt and Uncle (Two very cool people.) until my parents got back.
Monday (22nd): We went to pick up Nathan from Vanguard (he had stayed there in a dorm overnight) and then began our journey home to Oregon. The only real event of note for this day was my unfortunate encounter with a pice of a Ritz Bitz Peanut Butter cracker. Apparently my brother thought it would be amusing to stick this bit of cracker up my nose, but his of "fun" ended up causing me a minor nosebleed as well as causing my mother to be slightly annoyed with him. I didn't make a fuss, I was more concerned with keeping the blood from my nose off of my white shirt.
Tuesday (23rd): By now the Harrisons were pretty tired of the whole car-trip thing. We all got pretty bored on this last stretch of our journey. I finished the book I've been working on since January Mere Christianity and thoroughly enjoyed it, it really made me think about my life and how I act sometimes, I love those kind of books. :) We finally made it home at about 9:30 PM and all eventually ended up face-down in our pillows.
Today (24th): I woke up to the less-than-subtle realization that I had (and still have) a whole lot to do today, I goofed around on the internet for a while and caught up with all that's gone on in the world while I've been away, I was given a bit of news that could've been very mood-dampening for me but didn't really phase me at all, it's seems odd to me, but I don't really mind not being devastated by the bit of news. I finally finished up my Bio lab (you remember, the one I was supposed to do last Thursday) and had such fun doing it too. AT about 3:00 I headed of to the doctors and enjoyed a lovely hour long wait to the see the doctor, (who was very nice) found out nothing was wrong and headed home. Yeah, so now I'm here...entertaining you....

Oh yeah, some of my cousins and one of my aunts from Wisconsin are coming to visit us for the remainder of our break. This could be....interesting.....Any of my friends with the inclination to come kidnap me for an hour or two are welcome to do it, I could use a bit of non-familiness after this weekend and even moreso after this coming weekend. Yeah, so any hostage rescue operations would be appreciated.

I almost forgot! They weighed me at the doctor's office and I now weigh 109.5 pounds! YAY!

No quote now, no time. Must sleep! But first 1) I'm alive 2) I had fun 3) I will post for real tomorrow 4) this is fun too:

The following in an excerpt from a children's book, "Captain
Underpants And the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants" by Dave
Pilkey. The evil Professor forces everyone to assume new names......

Use the third letter of your first name to determine
your new first name:
a = poopsie b = lumpy c = buttercup
d = gadget e = crusty f = greasy
g = fluffy h = cheeseball i = chim-chim
j = stinky k = flunky l = boobie
m = pinky n = zippy o = goober
p = doofus q = slimy r = loopy
s = snotty t = tootie u = dorkey
v = squeezit w = oprah x = skipper
y = dinky z = zsa-zsa

Use the second letter of your last name to determine
the first half of your new last name:
a = apple b = toilet c = giggle
d = burger e = girdle f = barf
g = lizard h = waffle i = cootie
j = monkey k = potty l = liver
m = banana n = rhino o = bubble
p = hamster q = toad r = gizzard
s = pizza t = gerbil u = chicken
v = pickle w = chuckle x = tofu
y = gorilla z = stinker

Use the fourth letter of your last name to determine
the second half of your new last name:
a = head b = mouth c = face
d = nose e = tush f = breath
g = pants h = shorts i = lips
j = honker k = butt l = brain
m = tushie n = chunks o = hiney
p = biscuits q = toes r = buns
s = fanny t = sniffer u = sprinkles
v = kisser w = squirt x = humperdinck
y = brains z = juice

Just call me Zippy Apple-Buns