I just spent the last hour and a half looking at my old blog posts. I completely forgot about how I used to be. When I started posting here I was a freshman in high school. Now I've just finished freshman year in college. Wild.

I want to thank everyone on this website who I've interacted with. It may seem strange, but I'm a firm believer in the philosophy that everything affects everything. I wouldn't have turned out this way if it weren't for you.

So, a majority of my blog posts...and forum posts, for that matter...took place during my freshman and sophomore years in high school. Some during the first part of junior year. Almost none were posted after that. It would take me too long to explain why, but everything that I'm going to remember about high school happened after Christmas Break junior year. I kind of can't help but look back now that I'm home for the summer. I'm going to a school in Minnesota, about five hours north of where I live. Coming back makes me realize, despite how hard it was, why I couldn't stay in the same place.

My first year of college could also be categorized as one of the best years of my life. I'm so lucky to have found people I could relate to and fit in with right away. It seems like so many people have much more trouble with it. I'm blessed.

It's been a while since I've buried myself in my past. I used to do nothing but that, and it's become impossible to do so. I found a way to continue to look forward without forgetting what got me where I am. Just because I don't come here anymore doesn't mean I don't carry it with me. It's a weird thing to say. Very few people can attribute an important part of their character to a video game website, but I can, and I'm glad I turned out this way. Life is wonderful.

GameFreak

Hello, Gamespot. It's been a while. :P

I've been enjoying life with friends and family...well, I use the term "enjoying" loosely (definitely spelled that wrong, but I don't feel like checking dictionary.com), but overall it's been a good experience. High school's over...for good. Somehow I survived four AP courses my senior year, among other things. Going to college in a few months.

So yeah...I'm not going to get intoa big, deep "what I've learned from life so far" thing. That would be lame. >_< But I did feel like revisiting for a bit just to say that I'm still alive (I'm going to have that Portal song stuck in my head now), and doing quite well. Let's see what happens next.

GameFreak

Okay, so...some stuff's happened since my last post. :P

I'm not going into everything, but junior year really caught up with me...the work, the activities, the life...oh, the life part really took me off guard. I love it. I'm stressed and relaxed all at once. I have a million things on my mind with short releases in between to collect myself, and others. I've been really getting to know people.

I started thinking again about why I started coming here. I think it's because it was a place I could escape. But hey, now I don't have to! :P It's weird, though...as I continued to come here, it turned into the community many of you still know. I kind of detached myself from my school life and...well, I lived here.

And I'm not saying that it's wrong to come here. For me, it was theraputic. I'm just saying that now, it's not for me. Where I've been for the past few months...with people I'm around every day, people who do care...that's for me.

So, there's that. I've basically just met people an accomplished some different things. I guess that's an understatement.

GameFreak

Got a lot to catch up on...but I probably won't type everything. Let us begin.

1) "Free Bird" is harder on Expert mode. (It's my last song before I beat Guitar Hero II. :?)

2) Winter Formal is a great time, even though I can't dance.
2a) There's nothing like listening to reggae in the car with friends.
2b) It's not that hard to keep that fact that you have someone else's car keys a secret.
2c) People get freaked out when they see someone beat "Miserlou" on Expert. (I felt kind of show-offy, but I couldn't help myself. :P)

3) Windows Movie Maker doesn't work on my computer for some reason. Maybe it's God's way of telling me I shouldn't pursue directing. :P

4) If you take a sharp metal object and strike it against a brick wall, sparks appear.
4a) Sparks are pretty.

5) Dramatic one-liners can make people cry. (I had no idea, but it happened. :?)

6) Beating Half Life 2: Episode 1 without using bullets is tedious unless your gravity gun is super-charged.

7) I'm the only person on Earth who doesn't know the words to "Bohemian Rhapsody."

By the way, thanks to those who have been voting for me in the OTcars. It's much appreciated. :D As a matter of fact...thanks to those who haven't been voting for me, too, for making OT...OT. :P

GameFreak

I haven't written a blog yet this year. I'll keep it short, full of information, and hopefully entertaining. Here are some things I've learned this year.

1) Two weeks and six rehearsals isn't nearly enough time to put together a one-act play.

2) "Free Bird" is hard to play on Hard mode.

3) "Service Engine Soon" really means "Service Engine Now."

4) Unless our school is baracaded by twelve and a half feet of snow, we're still going to have c|asses.

5) The only hard thing about Halo 3 on Heroic mode is those freaking jackal snipers.

6) Second semester will go by faster than any individual day of it.

7) If you ask for an opportunity and get one, you better live up to your part of the bargain.

8 ) Movies are a great alternative to therapy.

9) Khakis are way more comfortable than jeans.

I think that's everything. :)

GameFreak

I got to hard mode on Guitar Hero II. I know I've only had it for less than a week...and I know it's hard anyway...but I'm having a real tough time getting use to that orange button. :x I'm glad the game developers put it in, but jeez, if it isn't that trickiest thing to figure out...

I kind of got into Forza. I don't know what it is...I don't know a thing about cars, but it's still really fun. I got used to the whole "realism" thing. I kind of like it now...my brother crashes a lot, though. He keeps ruining my nice cars. :x

I beat Halo 3. On Easy. Now I'm onto Normal, which is going nicely. I've retrieved a few skulls...with the help of Gamespot. Let's be honest...some of them are a little too elusive for...well, for my unflinching impatience. :P

I got Streetlight Manifesto's new CD yesterday. I'm quite impressed...they're so catchy. ^_^ Normally, I would hesitate to buy something so soon after Christmas, but I used a gift card that I got for Christmas, so it's okay.

I watched Superbad last night...and loved it. Either the guy who played McLovin' is really like that in real life, or he's the greatest actor alive...he was brilliant either way. :lol:

Short blog...my dad's got 1200 songs being copied to iTunes, and it's taking forever...he started an hour ago and only 250 are done. :? I don't want to slow it down anymore, so...

GameFreak

Christmas was cool...:P Since everyone else is, I'll post what I got and what I think of it so far.

Xbox 360 - Not broken. Plays games...yup.

Guitar Hero II - Just as addicting as everyone says.

Halo 3 - Not nearly as overrated as everyone says...actually, quite a bit better than Halo 2. Gravity swords rock.

"I-Empire" by Angels & Airwaves - Exceeded expectation...completely destroys their first album.

Candy - Sugary, and tasty.

Gift Cards - Usable at specific locations only...I found that out. Best Buy won't take my Barnes & Noble gift card.

Ultimate Alliance - Came with 360...I'm not a superhero fan, so I can't say much about it. It's alright.

Forza 2 - Frustrating. I have no tolerance for realism in my video games. Also came with the system.

There it is...my parents really spent a lot this year.

I'm still waiting for a script for the one-act play, though. It's supposed to me coming in the mail...maybe it'll come with a bow on it. :question: The girl running the rehersals said it's by far the weirdest thing she's read in her life. I'm looking forward to it.

I talked with someone yesterday who I hadn't heard from in a year. It was nice...but short. We didn't have much time to catch up...or much to catch up on, apparently. She told me that she hasn't listened to Relient K's new CD yet because she's afraid she won't like it. I agreed that it's quite different than their previous albums. Their sound had matured quite a bit, but there's still a bit of their old silly humor in it. I think it's a great CD, but she's not ready to move on yet. It was weird...after she left, I realized that maybe we weren't just talking about the CD. I guess that's a little hard to understand if you don't know our background.

GameFreak

My Favorite Christmas Song.

Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays. :)

GameFreak

Day one of finals is over. Did I mention it's finals week?

I managed to keep my A- in Advanced Pre-Calc, and get my grade up to an A+ in Band. 8) Tomorrow's my toughest day: AP Physics (in which I have a B) and AP Lang/Comp (A-). For both, I'm bordering a lower grade, and I need to do well on the finals...but the thing is, they're college level courses. I don't know if I can do it.

And I don't know if I can keep expecting myself to do it. I mean, I know I should push myself to my limits, but sometimes I wonder if I can go further or if I'm just quitting. This is probably my worst semester in high school so far (it's my Junior year). I say that, but my worst grade is a B in the c|ass that most people get a B in. Should I feel bad, or just take it?

I guess everyone's got rough patches...hopefully this is mine. I say things like that to try and justify it. Things like, It's no big deal, I joined Speech this year, and I was in the play. That should be enough to get me off the hook.

But then I see people who are involved in more, doing better than I am. That sucks...then I think I'm not working hard enough. I shouldn't have to compare myself with others, but I do it anyway...maybe it's human nature. People are competitive. What better motivation is there to get ahead?

I think what it really comes down to is that I don't know what I want to be good at yet, so I feel the need to do everything perfectly. One of my friends does absolutely nothing in c|ass, but he's brilliant. He aces all of his tests, but he doesn't do any homework, so his GPA is like a 2.0. But he has it figured out; he's a debator, and he works at that...and he's amazing, one of the best in the school, probably in the country.

That's what I need...something I'm good at. I might be good at acting...and I might know about music and psychology, and none of the courses I'm taking now (except for band and AP Language) are helping me with those things. So for now, I guess I'm fine with being imperfect.

GameFreak

Here they are, in some particular order:

1) Ice is hard.

2) Car windows are very sturdy.

3) Side-view mirrors are not very sturdy.

4) It's hard to tell when the ice stops and the car starts.

5) Lightly pecking at the ice in several strategically-placed spots will give the appearance that the vehicle was in a drive-by.

6) After leaving your car on for fifteen minutes, it begins to smell like a barbeque.

And now, other insights...this would be the part about my life, so if you want to be interested, look elsewhere. If you want to be bored, surely there are better ways.

This week's been a weird one. All of my teachers are cramming in tests at the last minute because we have a bunch of F-words next week. So I spend time either A) Being nervous about tests, B) Being nervous about finals, or C) Being neither, because I suspect that I'm bipolar...or bicareous...not to be confused with bicurious...the former is a word I think I just made up that means that sometimes I care, and sometimes I don't. Isn't that odd?

Anyways, I was going to have a test in every c|ass yesterday and today...(block scheduling, we don't have all of our c|asses on one day)...but we had a snow day yesterday. Or an ice day...hence, me discovering things about chiseling my car. Well, because of that, two of our tests were cancelled.

Here's where it's weird: I'm not used to getting extra credit. Teachers just don't do it very often in high school. I don't expect it. But two teachers already have given me extra credit...in U.S. History, in which I used to have a 94.5%, I now have a 100.5%. No exaggeration. And my Advanced Pre-Calc grade went up 1.5%, because of a supposedly perfect test score, a review packet that no one's finished but he put in anyway, and an extra-credit assignment that I got 1000/1 on. Good for me.

So that takes some pressure off of the finals next week...then I'll be able to relajarse...that means to relax. This semester went really fast...which surprises me, looking back at all the things I did: About 10 marching band performances, including one in Minnesota where I stayed up all night; 4 Speech and Debate tournaments, one of which was in Chicago; countless hours of marching band rehersals; countable hours of jazz band rehersals; insane amounts of hours of me working on my H.I.; amazing numbers of hours spent on the play...and then school work. Sometimes I just amaze myself...

GameFreak