A whole month!!! Lots of news, good and bad.

Whoa! Can't believe I've been too lazy to post on Blogger for a whole month, nearly two! Lot's to talk about.

First of all, welcome home, Jacoby!

Been really busy for the last month and a half. At school, we've had essay after essay, book after book, project after project! I had to write a 7 page in class essay with no earlier preparation in two hours on the monster in Lord of the Flies, I've got to finish reading 1984 over winter break, and I have to finish a project worth most of my semester grade in the first couple days back to school. We've been working on the same Career project for months!

Earlier this month, I was in my first Fencing tournament! It was awesome. The place it was at was so much more... organized, than the elementary school gym in issaquah, that I go to for lessons. It was a Regional Youth Circuit, and wasn't worth any national points. I did great in the early prelim rounds, winning 2 out of my 4 matches with the people in my pool. Once the real matches started though, I lost my first match to the only other student from my fencing school, 15-14. I had a big lead for a while, but had no concept of clock management and was too aggressive. She took back the lead by one and ran out the clock, while I tried desperately to get back the lead. FAIL. In the end, I got 9th place out of 12, and surprisingly enough, the girl who beat me in my first match, Jade, won in 3rd place. Congrats!

I've read a lot of great books lately. I spent weeks reading through the Belgariad series, and it is fantastic! One of the best fantasy series ever! I started the Mallorean, but just didn't get into it. I finished book one, but then moved onto something new. Today, I went to Barnes and Noble and got three new books. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, Magician: Apprentice (which I'm now reading) and Magician: Master by Raymond E. Feist. I've heard it's amazing, and it's pretty good so far. I'll find out I guess.

I've also seen a lot of movies in the last two months. I've watched all of the X-Men movies, including the new one, I've watched Star Trek (twice! In the last two days! Awsome!!!), Up, Sherlock Holmes (Good movie!), Old dogs (ok), and 21, the blackjack one. Most of the movies I've seen have been terrific, and I'm excited to go see Avatar tomorrow. Supposed to be fantastic.

Now for the bad news...

Winter break has been very eventful, although that is not necessarily good. Not good at all. I spent the first week being lazy, playing the new call of duty game and ping pong at my dads. We celebrated our first christmas with our dad's girlfriend, Jackie, and her family. That was fun, but afterward, was when the bad started. We couldn't go skiing Christmas day, because Jackie's daughter, Caroline wasn't feeling well. Turned out that skiing was the worst of our problems. That night, Caroline was even worse, so they decided to be safe and take her to the hostpital. She had a Pneumonia that was resilient to antibiotics and one of her lungs was filled with fluid, and the other was half filled. A few more hours of waiting, and she'd have died. Because they couldn't get the antibiotics to work, the weren't sure whether or not she'd be all right. Last night, the antibiotics began working though, and she's gotten a little better, although I haven't gotten the most recent news, because I've been with my mom the last few days. I'm seeing my dad tomorrow though, so I'll ask then. Luckily, they think she'll live, although she'll have to spend the next few weeks in the hospital.

Well, good luck Caroline.

That's all I've got to talk about for now. Sorry I've been gone so long.

Sick

I'm sick with the Swine flu, H1N1. It sucks. I'm missing so much school, and I'm dreading going back. I'm gonna be swamped with work when I get back on Monday. I was already still catching up on work.

On the other hand, I'm very excited for NaNoWriMo, which starts very soon!!! Sadly, I have no clue what to write about. All this sick time should give me time to think about it.

Goodbye!!!!

Bye Bye! I'm going to Canada!

...

Sorta. I'm going up with my family to my mom's boyfriend's family ranch for the weekend. I'll be back to civilization on Monday.

On the other hand, I just got back from a very strange production of The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare. It was the redneck version, which was very fitting for the show. It was funnier than I thought it would be, although I'd like to see a normal version too. Next Thursday, I'm seeing The Comedy of Errors with my dad. I'd have also seen Richard III this weekend if it weren't for the trip to the Ranch. Yep, lots of Shakespeare lately. In the winter, Dad and I are seeing Twelfth Night and Electra (not Shakespeare. It's replacing the production of Hamlet, which is being postponed.) And in the Spring we're seeing Two Gentlemen of Verona and Henry V, and possibly A Midsummer Nights Dream and Romeo & Juliet.

Hmm... let's see. Oh! I saw the Blue Angels today! They were doing practice flights for this weekend, so my mom, her boyfriend, and I went out on the lake to watch. It wasn't as good as a real show, but it was cool. The water was surprisingly warm, due to the heatwave passing through. It was recordbreaking temperatures yesterday. 104 degrees. How is that record breaking temps! I didn't even think it was hot until I went in and checked the weather. My brothers however, were doing a Lacrosse camp and were sweating like pigs.

Well, I'll see y'all next week!

TV

Ouch! I'm being eaten alive! The bugs are killing me! Even though I used to live in Georgia, I've gotten used to having no bugs in Seattle! I've been doing a Kayak camp with my cousin, Tilly, and our friend, Yael for the last few days. I'd known I'd been going with Tilly, but I was completely surprised when I heard Yael was coming. We've been going to Camp Judaea for the last 6 years together. She is the daughter of my cousin Michelle's best friend, so that's how she knew Tilly and I. What really surprised me was that she lives in Israel, so it would be an awfully long commute every morning and afternoon. Turns out, she is staying in the US until January, and being homeschooled by her mom.

Anyway, I've been watching more TV lately than I have before. I think it's because I've finally gone to try out new TV shows meant for older audiences than Spongebob. Now, instead of watching those stupid kid TV shows that my brothers watch, I watch some really good shows. The first one I tried out is Lie to Me, on Fox. I loved getting out into some new shows, so I stuck with this show to the end of the season. It's about a guy who can read microexpressions on faces to tell when they are lying. I then tried out a couple of others, including Heroes and Bones. I could never find any episodes of Heroes, so I stopped watching at episode 6. Then I found Bones, and it is the best tv show ever. It is a crime-solving show about a forensic anthropologist who is working with an FBI agent to solve crimes no one else can. I have watched all the way through season 4 in the last 6-7 months, and it is terrific! Sadly, all of the TV shows ended right before I left for camp, so I have to wait until next fall for some new episodes. Luckily, on NBC, I found a new summer show: Merlin. It tells the story of a young Merlin in a Camelot where magic is forbidden by it's ruler, Uther Pendragon. Merlin's duty is to protect the future king, Arther, and often has to use magic to do so. It's unfaithful to the original legend in a thousand ways, but it's still a good show.

Anyway, hopefully I won't get too addicted to TV again. I'll try to spend more time posting instead.

Catching up

Crap!!! Sorry I wasn't able to write another post the night of my last one. After I got off the computer, my brothers claimed it for the rest of the night, and have since then. The only reason I can write now is because Jordan is still asleep, and Ezra flew to Virginia the other day to visit a friend. Jordan and I are still in Savannah for another week, until this Friday, though.

Yesterday, my Grandmama took Jordan and I to a family reunion, where I was able to meet a bunch of the family that I'd done research on for my family tree, and those I hadn't known existed.

Over the last week, I've seen a ton of new movies. I saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and I've gotta say, it sucked. My dad said he felt nauseous afterward, and there weren't even many disgusting scenes.

We also saw Ice Age III: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and it wasn't half bad for an Ice Age movie. A bit silly of course, but it was way better than Transformers II.

And last, but certainly not least, the best movie of the series so far in my families opinion (Tilly, Jordan, and Ezra), HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE!!! Sadly, we weren't able to see it the day it came out. We had to wait until Thursday. The movie was terrific!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They did skip a couple of scenes, but what they didn't skip, they did really well. Especially the Weasly's Wizard Wheezes! Awesome place! Oh yeah, and the Felix Felicis scene was hilarious!!!

I'll probably have more time to write now that Ezra isn't going to be hogging the computer, so I'll write later, although I may not get a chance until tomorrow. I've found a lot of really good TV shows. Maybe I'll write about them.

I'm back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm finally back from camp, and I've got a lot to talk about. My brother is nagging me to go on the computer right now (I'm in Savannah, at my grandpa's and I don't have my laptop), but I promise that I'll write about camp, DC, and whatever I meant to talk about before I left ASAP. I'll write a post later tonight.

I'm so glad to be back on Blogger!

Happy birthday, Ezra and Jordan!

Whoa. Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I've been really busy with end of the year projects and such. I've got a lot to talk about over the next few days before I leave for camp for a month and a half.

But for now, I'd like to say Happy Birthday to my brothers, Ezra and Jordan. Ezra's is today, and Jordan's was on May 26. Happy Birthday!!!!!!!

WASL Testing 2009

WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) time again. Today, I took the Math WASL, and it was one of the easiest Math Tests I've ever taken. There was only one problem I had trouble with, and that was because I was just being really stupid. Tomorrow and Thursday, I've got Reading WASLs, and on Friday I've got Science. Wish me luck!

Lastly, Happy Birthday Kathryn!!!!!!!!

San Diego - The Rest

Well, here's the outline of the rest of my trip. I just got back yesterday:

Seaworld - Day 2: We spent that morning at the beach, and hung out with Dan again until about 2:00, when we went back to Seaworld. We rode the Atlantis rollarcoaster (Ok), went to a Pet's Rule show (Ok, sorta lame. The animals were cool though), The Sesame Street/ Elmo 4D show (I can't believe they made me go to that. It was beyond lame.), Rode some Raging Rapids ride twice. You're sorta in a raft, and go through a bunch of water things, like waterfalls, water guns, and waves. You get soaked. The first time we went, I got a little wet, but not too badly, while 3 of the 6 in our raft got wet. The three that didn't, including me and Ezra, wanted to go again. The other's including Jordan, reluctanly agreed. Those three were nice and dry afterward... I wasn't. Ezra was though. We were going to go to another Shamu show that night, but we were too cold and wet, so we went home. I spent the rest of the night watching Batman Begins on TV. It was a pretty boring day. Better than Day 1 though.

Legoland - Day 1: Terrible. Not even gonna talk about it. Lame coasters, long lines. Terrible. The only semi-good thing about it was miniworld. They had lego sculptures of cities around the world, like DC, New Orleans, Vegas, New York, and a few others. Not too bad.

Pool - Day 1: We spent our last day there at the pool of the hotel we were in. It was ok. My eyes were sore after a while, I got a bit sunburned, I played some pingpong. It was pretty fun playing with my brothers. That night we watched one of the funniest movies ever, A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger. Hilarious. I'll talk about that later.

We came home afterward. The first half of the trip was by far the best. Second half was really boring. Since I missed two days of school for the trip, I now have a ton of work to make up. We started reading Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, we started two big projects, and we started a really important unit in Math that I need to learn.  Great.

San Diego, so far.

So far, I have mixed feelings about this vacation. The weather has been on and off. It was nice the day we got here, so we went to the beach, it was nice the next day, so we went to the San Diego Zoo, it was supposed to be nice on Thursday, so we went to Seaworld... wasn't so nice, and it was very nice yesterday, so we hung out at the beach again.

Beach - Day 1: We splashed around in the water, chased eachother around, and lay around in the sand. It was okay.

San Diego Zoo - Day 1: Amazing!!!! The Zoo here is huge, and has such amazing animals. They have about 5 Aviaries to go into (lots of birds), Giant Pandas, A really lame Sea Lion show, Giant Tortises, Komodo Dragons, lots of snakes, including a two headed one, an awesome Gharial, or something, and some nonexistant Polar Bears. It was a ton of fun!

Seaworld - Day 1: We spent the morning watching a load of shows. First was the Dolphin show, which was really amazing!!!! We sat in the Soak Zone, so of course, we got soaked. They had 4 dolphins and some wierd whale, that looked like a giant black Beluga. Next, we saw Shamu! We sat in the Soak Zone, (with ponchos this time), and only got splashed once. I'd already seen the show in Orlando anyway, so I wasn't too disappointed. Finally, we went to see the sea lion show. It was a dress rehearsal for a brand new show that was officially opening today, so we got to watch a few scenes over again, due to the messups. It was hilarious! It included two sea lions, Seamore and Clyde, a sea otter, whose name I can't remember, and a huge manatee. It was called Sea Lions LIVE! and was the sea lions and their tamers making fun of a bunch of TV shows. They made fun of Superman, American Idol, Iron Chef, Dancing with the Stars, and Survivor. It was so funny! Sadly, we left right afterward. It was freezing all day, with overcast skies.

Beach - Day 2: There are two beaches. One across the road, which is the Pacific Ocean, and one right by our house, which is a little bay. We went to the bay first, to play frizbee, then we went across the road to boogie board and Skim Board. Ezra and I spent the whole time boogie boarding with a kid from Colorado that we met, Dan. He's Ezra's age. It was a ton of fun boogie boarding. We're planning on going back to boogie board with Dan again today. 

Jordan wants me to take him down to the beach for now though, so I'll write about the rest of my trip in a few days.

Spring Break, San Diego, and reads

Finally!!!!! Today is the first day of Spring Break for me!!!! Wow. There's only a few weeks left of school. Then it's off to camp, then just a few weeks of Summer left, then High School... Wow. Everything is passing so quickly.

I got off really lucky. No homework for my vacation except for setting up a Science Project, which I can't do quite yet. On Tuesday, I'm gonna go to California for the first time with my brothers, My dad, his girlfriend, Jackie, and two of Jackie's kids, Emmy and Caroline, both of which are older than my brothers and I. My friend Marek got unlucky. He's going on a roadtrip with his family for 8 days into the middle of nowhere with his hyperactive little brother and no computer. Kathryn is even luckier than me. She's going on her annual trip to Hawaii. Lucky her. So many kids at my school are going there. I've never been to Hawaii, and I want to soooo badly. 

Well, we're going to San Diego. A huge zoo, Seaworld, and best of all, the beach!!!! Warmth!!!! It's been freezing for weeks here on Mercer Island. It's torture. And it's been raining. If it's going to be cold, it should at least snow instead of rain.

I've also got a mission over spring break. Kathryn wants me to read a book called The Shack that she's been going on and on about, saying somthing about it "strengthening her relationship with God." We had a long argument, or well, you can't really call it an argument. It was more like a discussion about religion. I told her I'd read it if I could start it before the end of break. I had already been planning to read The 13th Reality 2 over spring break (finally!) and before that, I have to finish rereading Brisingr. I'm probably gonna finish Brisingr tonight, so I'll be done with 13th Reality in a few days. Does anyone else know about this book, The Shack? It was a New York Times Best Seller.

Invite-Only Private Fencing Program..... I WAS INVITED!!!!

This is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was at my fencing class tonight (I missed last week because I as sick, so tonight was my first night in the intermediate class) and the instructor asked to talk to my dad. I went and got him, and the coach told us that he was reccomending us for an invite-only fencing program at the Sammamish Plateau nearby. He said that I had a lot of potential as a fencer and wanted to give me some private lessons to see if I should permanantly join!!!! This is the kind of program that gets people scholarships, and even into the Olympics!!! This is so cool!!! I'll tell you more when I know more!

A lot to talk about... but not really/ The 13th Realiy: Hunt for the Dark Infinity Blog Tour

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. All last week my computer was broken. It couldn't connect to the internet and had to be erased intirely. Luckily, all my files were saved, including my story, which is now 12606 pages long and has 41 pages. It is lacking subplots though, and is a bit of a bore for a while. I need to have more characters, and more for my character to do in the first few chapters, other than run. I've posted the first few chapters at the critique group section on the Farworld forum under Critisism for The Necromancer Apprentice if you want to read it. Or you can email me to get the prologue. I've already sent it to you, Jacoby, right?

I've got a few short movie reviews to do.

Push -

It really sucked. Don't see it. It was so boring and disgusting that me, both of my brothers, my mom, and her friend said that they should have seen something else. It didn't even tie up all the plots at the end. If your going to leave something open for a sequel, at least make it a good movie.

Pink Panther II -

It was silly, of course, but it was better than Push. If you saw the first one, you should see II, but if not, it's not worth it.

My weekend in movies was really dissappointing.

On Friday though, I had a really fun/funny/guilty time. I went to a paintball (painball) party for my friend, Alex. I got a few bruises, but it wasn't me that got hurt. The big rule was to not shoot someone up close. When you get close, you're supposed to yell surrender. The first piece of guilt was toward my friend, Marek. We were playing a game called Presidential Assasination, and Alex was the president. I killed him, with a paintball to the chest. My turn to be president. My two secret service agents, Alex and his dad, died, and the other team rushed up to me. Marek yelled surrender. I didn't hear, and shot him in the leg from 5 feet away. My friend Sean hit me in the thumb afterward, somehow killing me. Marek had a huge welt, and was rather pissed off at me. It was rather funny though. Next, in the last game, Alex ran in front of me just as I started to fire. I hit him in the back, and he went down. He had a gigantic welt and was mad. I hadn't meant to hit him, so that wasn't funny at all. 

That's pretty much all that has happened since I last posted.

Oh, and for James Dashner's blog tour, The 13th Reality: Book 2: Hunt for the Dark Infinity comes out in 5 days!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait, and I highly encourage you to buy it!!! Was that good enough? I don't know what else to write? Also, the Maze Runner is coming out (hopefully) in September. And I really want that ARC.

High School: Class of 2013: Class Choices: Part 1

Sorry I haven't posted here in a while. Nothing has really happened, other than homework and the Superbowl, which everyone's already talked enough about. I was rooting for the Cardinals by the way, and the Doritos crystal ball commercial was the best.

Last night, my mom went to some High School informational meeting, to learn about my class choices. There are 7 periods of the day, and these are the classes she suggested to me:

• English 9
• ATC English 9
• Honors Geometry 9
• Honors Science 9 (Chemistry and Physics)
• World History 9
• Spanish 2 (2nd year of Spanish)
• 
  

That last one is a free period. I think I'll take her suggestions on this. In middle school, I took some more fun classes, but in high school, I don't think it's about having fun at school.

This Thursday, someone is coming to our school to talk for two periods to us about classes to take, so that may change my answers a bit. I'll post again after that. By the way, ATC English 9 stands for Advance Tecnical Communications. My mom says that it is very useful if you want to write papers or books.

Writing Day #2

My writing day yesterday went rather well. I had to spend the morning, until around 1:30 doing homework, and after that I wrote almost nonstop. I finished with about 1000 more words than when I started. Nothing else really to report on it.

Jumper

I know I've already posted twice tonight, but we went over to my mom's friend, Shawn's, house to watch Jumper. Jumper is a sci-fi thriller about a 15 year old by who discovers that he has the power to Jump, to be able to teleport anywhere in the world in an instant. He quickly becomes rich by robbing a bank and leaves his mean father to live on his world, traveling all over the world everyday. He can surf waves in Fiji, climb Mount Everest, and have lunch on top of the Sphinx in an hour. He can do anything. But the Paladin's don't like that. David is pulled into an ancient war between the Jumpers and the Paladin's, a group of religious fanatics who believe that only God should have the power to do anything. The Paladin's hunt and murder anyone who has this power, and anyone who get's in their way; including David's girlfriend from before he left to travel the world. Suddenly, David and his girlfriend Millie are in a high-speed chase with some help from Griffen, another wise-cracking Jumper who'd been hunting Paladin's all his life. Amazing special effects. It was a pretty cool concept. I'd highly recomend it. It was very cool.

Inkheart: The Movie

Today, I went to see the movie version of Inkheart! It was actually pretty good. They ruined it, but they ruined it well. Wierd, I know. There were a few major changes, mostly in the beginning and end, but other than that, it stayed pretty true to the book.

****Movie and Book Spoilers Below****

• They changed the beginning. Dustfinger chased them around a marketplace somewhere snowy, instead of finding them at their home.
• Fenoglio had a manuscript of Inkheart in the movie.
• Elinor wasn't recaptured after they went to Fenoglio's village. She tried to go home, but instead went back to, with Darius, fight against Capricorn.
  
• Mo and Dustfinger went back to Capricorns village willingly, to try to find Resa.
• And the big one was that Meggie didn't finish reading Fenoglio's alternate story for the Shadow, and had to finish it by writing her own ending on her arm, in which ALL of Capricorn's men died, including Mortola and Basta.
• Resa could talk again at the end.
• Fenoglio asked to go into the book.
• Dustfinger was sent home to his wife by Mo at the end of the movie, and Farid stayed with the group at Elinor's house.

They made it so that they could not make a second, but it was still a good movie either way.

Inkspell

The last time I read Inkspell, I never actually finished. Over winter break though, I finally finished reading it, and it was terrific!!! I loved it, especially the world the Cornelie Funke has created. Although in the book, it was Fenoglio who made it. And Fenoglio is not happy about it. Everything is going wrong: Cosimo the Fair is dead; the Laughing Prince has lately been known as the Prince of Sighs; and the Adderhead is practically in control of the land. However, when Dustfinger, Farid, Meggie and Gwin appear in Inkworld, things my start to get better. Or maybe they won't. Mortola and Basta are out for revenge toward Mo, and when he is shot in the Inkworld, Resa must keep him alive until Meggie can help with her magical voice. I absolutely loved it.

I think that the best part was probably the Spelt Mill. Meggie, Farid, and Dustfinger went to a Mill in Argenta, the realm of the Adderhead, and they are ambushed by Basta. What I loved was that Farid saves the day, attacking Basta and the Slasher, his minion, with fire.

Right now, I am reading Inkdeath, book 3. It is great so far! I can't wait to see how it ends. The end of Inkspell really made me want to read more. By the way, tomorrow is my full day of writing! I'll post on it tomorrow morning.

Virus

Sorry I haven't (spelling issues) posted in a while. My computer caught a very bad virus somehow, so I've been partially cut off from the Internet all weekend, since Thursday night. My iTouch has been a lifesaver though. When I get my computer back I'll have a lot to write about.

Full Day of Writing: Day 1: Part 2

I don't have that much to say about my first full day of writing. I goofed off a little. I watched TV. It was pretty much a lazy Sunday, except that I got some work done. I wrote about 600 more words, and did a few minor revisions. I also thought up some more ideas and plotlines. It was fun though. Maybe I'll schedule a few more!