Life under the rule of my parents, at least. I had a great night tonight 'cause Kim and I went over to Jake's and hung out. And we had Chinese food, so it doesn't really get much better than that. My mom gave Kim a ride home and as soon as she got out of the van, my mom tells me that I can't go out tomorrow night after band because I have HW.

I've had homework every day of my life since freshman year, literally.

 But I've managed to keep straight A's, so I guess it's getting done sometime, but my parents have decided that it'd be easier for them to dictate how I'm going to spend my weekends, rather than letting me be a teen and doing my HW when I need to do it.

So I tried to argue that I'd do most to all of my HW tonight, even though it was about 10ish when I got home, and still, my mother said I couldn't go out. However, another bi-weekly family BBQ is coming up, and I just can't miss it, so that's where I'll spend my Sunday, instead of doing HW. Oh, and get this; I'm not supposed to do HW on my day off, because I'm one of those super-exciting teens who plans a road trip on his Monday off of school.

Pffft. I wish.

I'll be playing video games all day or something, but not homework, for that is forbidden in the house of Martin. I hate how they try to run my life and take credit for inspiring me and supporting me when I get nothing but **** from them. Sure, they drive me places but oh, how they do complain about it. The question that quite literally comes out of my father's mouth is 'What's in it for me?' Never sarcastic, unfortunately. What the hell is that supposed to mean? I'm sorry that I was ever born to have you drive me home from band practice or a friend's on occasion. What's in it for me? That still baffles me every time I hear it, no matter how much I prepare for it.

Oh, but there is that 'We're so proud of you' statement from time to time right after I'm awarded something. But when I forget to call from some place, I get ripped.

So essentially, my responsibilities are encouraged, yet discouraged if it involves money or them driving me somewhere. And I can't go out to a traditional band dinner at Village Inn so I can do my HW, but the barbeque is of definite importance. No working on my days off, I'm just supposed to veg and waste time, or something along those lines. And lastly, my parents can take credit for all of my accomplishments while depriving me of my youthful years. What a nice story to tell the children some day.

Assuming I'm allowed to have children, if I get my HW done before the delivery, and my parents get to say, 'All our hard work and now we have grandchildren.' How do my parents manage that much genius and compassion?

Testing, testing. 1, 2, 3. So, this is no longer a journal, but a blog, so that's pretty savage. Right now, I'm just seeing if anyone can actually find my journal anywhere. I mean, my blog. I can't really find my friends' unless I go to their profiles.

Anywho, no time to rant on the new GS or the happenings of the past week. I'll wait for things to settle back in before then. Lata.

Rye

Fohawk; Fake mohawk.

Simply, those who fashion a mohawk without having their hair cut to actually sport a mohawk are actually wearing a fohawk. For some reason, Jake told me to wear my hair in a fohawk today and it was kickin'. I got so many compliments on it, so I guess I did it pretty well this morning. Let's see....what else? Oh I:

• Turned in my brain model.
• Put a NES buckle on my belt.
• Made bracelets to sell to benefit the Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
• Wrote '31337 g4m3r' on my hand in pen, confusing everyone I crossed paths with.
• Bought a second Xbox S-type controller (green, of course), finally.
• That's....that's actually all of it.

G'nite! -Rye

That's right! I got me some brown Converse. Size twelve, too. Do you have any idea how big those make my feet look? I'l tell you- they look meatnormous. The two general comments I got on them today were 'Man, those are huge!' and 'I'm in love with your shoes.' Because I guess, in all actuality, they are just that cool. I'll try to get a picture of them a.s.a.p. so you can all stare in wonder. Other than that, I found out I have a 4.0 at school because I have a B in psych, but that might change.

In other news, nothing, really. I can't wait for Saturday, though! We're participating the Friendship Cup and if we advance to the finals (the top ten bands) I would be so proud/impressed with ourselves this year. Plus it'll make for the longest ever day of marching band, but I'm up to the challenge. And it turns out I'm going to see the CSO on Friday, so that should be fun. Later days.

That's right. The weekend overview's comin' at ya.

[friday] School was actually fun because we made brain models out of oranges and candy in AP psych and then got to eat them. Then for a time, nothing happened. Three of clock rolled around and we were at the stadium rehearsing. Then we got a dinner break and went to Sonic and then back to the school to practice suicides. We had around ten or eleven people doing it, it was pretty awesome. And there were all mellis except for two trumpets. And Jeff and Mark struggled to explain it.

We marched across to the field and took our seats. Then for a time, nothing happened. Not! I got to sit next to Sammi and I gave her a great, big hug. And Scott was there, too! I hadn't seen that kid in ages. So it was pretty awesome. Plus the rest of the graduating class from THS, in band, at least, was at the game. Oh! And when the cadences came on, I started dancing, my apprentice, second chair trumpet, Travis started dancing. And later in the game, Jose, third chair, was dancing, too. So we pretty much rocked and had the band watching us every time.

Half-time! Was a pretty great show for me, and overall, we impressed. Becky, my former section leader, said we looked amazing, so I was proud. Ah, third quarter. Becky, with her mad skill, taught everyone the right way to do suicides and we got 'em looking pretty good. Then we did two suicide runs, one slow, and one pretty quick. The latter of the two was pretty amazing, or so I heard. Let's see...then I danced some more, played some more, and went to Village Inn. Village Inn is the cool band kids' dinner hangout. I ate with three alumni and Charity and Ardis and I had a piece of cherry pie and a piece of cheesecake. And I talked to Becky for like, two hours. I never realized how much I really have in common with her since we'd never hung out outside of school. So it was a great end to a great day.

[saturday] So after all that, I got up early-early for a three hour rehearsal. Then I got home, at lunch, ran up to Target to get a shirt to wear for the night. Sammi came over and we played Donkey Konga (2) for a solid three hours. It was pretty much really, really awesome. I got quite a workout. Though it was kind of sad to know we didn't have the whole day to play games. But! Then! I showered and got ready and Amanda and Kim came to pick me up. We went to Andrew's house for some Mexican food and virgin margaritas, lol, and hung out for a bit. I was Amanda's date, of course, so we took some pretty nice pictures. I'll try to post them in here as soon as I get them. So yeah, there were about eight of us who went together and we started dancing as soon as we got there. What else is there say besides

'I danced like a mad-man.'

But seriously, I did. The Six Flags theme song came on, and I started a small train with my friends. And then more than half of everyone in the gym had joined the train and I was leading us. It was great to have people staring at me, the engine. Then we left around 10:30ish to Andrew's house. There, we watched Armageddon, and I guess I fell asleep on the cough, so they dumped popcorn on my face and took pictures. I guess I slept through that...somehow. Then I woke up, we ate some German chocolate (don't ask) and then decided to head on home. 'Cept Jake stayed at the dance instead of coming back with his date, Kim. Then I got home and online and the power went out, so I just went to bed. My room was unbelievably dark, thus, I got some great sleep.

[sunday] Woke up, got online, and here I am. But I made a slight discovery- liking Lauren is a lost cause. I guess, somehow, Lauren was able to go to homecoming after all, and she had another date, but she blogged about it and said it was a great night, so I guess, even if she did mean that she liked me back, that we'll never be more than friends. And I guess I'm alright with that, it's just rather....disappointing. Oh, well. She's still a really great friend to have and I wouldn't give that up for anything. What else, what else...oh, yeah! I have a brain model to complete today for psych, so that should be fun. I have to get up to Michael's crafts so I can get some Play-Doh or clay or something. And I guess that's the rest of my day. I might watch the Family Guy movie, too, but we'll see how the brainage plays out. For all of you that read this entry in its entirety, you're all troopers. If you didn't, then I guess you're not reading this now and it's pointless to keep rambling.

That was my weekend. Crazy, yeah? I guess I'm not that boring, after all, which makes me pretty happy. I hope your weekends were decent and that everything's going alright. Sorry about the lack of entry, I've just been busy. Oh, well. Later days.

Rye

We read an excerpt of Edward's speech about unregenterate Christians attending church when more and more people denied the Puritan faith. So naturally, we had to do a paper about his sermon, being creative, for our portfolio. And since I have nothing else to report on, save the fact that I'm extremely tired, I thought I'd share it with you. Now, the voice is not the same as his, but the implementation of a giant metaphor is indeed present. So...enjoy!

A Sermon on the Great Commission

_____What is the great commission? And where is our faith so that God may know we love Him and devote our Pure lives to the afterlife. It is important to realize what our goal in life is, and it is necessary to understand that our physical life is a preview of what we inherit in the afterlife. Which is to say, good deeds, morals, and undeniable faith introduce you to Heaven while mistrust, chicanery, and sin tempt you to the Devil and the Gates of Hell.

_____When looking for a place to stay for a while, the Roach Motel and the Hilton couldn’t contrast more. Certainly, a poor man could only afford the grotesque Roach Motel, while one of more wealth could afford the Hilton. Never forget the Roach Motel is the last place you want to stay, it doesn’t become any worse or any more of a hassle and a pain to stay there. It isn’t exactly a place where someone could easily comfort you because the look and stench of the place drown you in depression.

_____Likewise, one would want for themselves to be happy in a place such as the Hilton, and they would want to share that feeling of security, comfort, and happiness with their friends and family. Only a poor man should suffer alone in the Roach Motel and only a wealthy man should be allowed to have his family with him by spread of his wealth to relax and thrive in the fruits of his high-spirited endeavors.

_____The poor man knows not God or faith. The poor man has not a sense of Hilton Heaven. He pays the highest price; an eternal Hellfire, the suffering of a Roach Motel. While he is the poorest, he has enough to buy himself damnation for denying God, not repenting, sinning, lying, and in the most grandeur essence, denying himself a full life.

_____The wealthy man pays nothing. The most luxurious Hilton is offered to everyone. There is a cost, but it is the most simple, miniscule cost. Faith; accepting God into our lives is all we must do. We do all that entails and the Hilton is ours for eternity. There is no suffering, but there are welcoming beds and pillows that we can look forward to in an ongoing sleep. Our semidiurnal bellhop asks only that from us. So I ask you now, what is the great commission? I tell to you now to make reservations in Heaven. Don’t be the poor man who has nothing to spend, but has to be the man who spends more than his life for his faults and disbelief. Amen.

'All I can say is that my life is really plain...'

...well, sometimes. I'm sort of in the middle of homework (as if there's a time when I'm not) but I figured I'd just rant a bit about nothing. It turns out I got a D+ on my last AP psych exam, but I have a 87% in the class. I ran some errands earlier to get some vitamins, colored paper, hair gel (even though it's technically a holding paste), and a second set of DK bongos. Amber came over and we played Donkey Konga 2 for a little bit and then I started on homework.

Wow, I seriously thought there was more than that.

Oh! Yeah, there is. Amanda broke up with her boyfriend, and so now she'd be going to homecoming alone, so I told her I'd go with her 'cause it's not fun to go by yourself. And now that about covers it. I think I'm going to try to get to bed in half an hour...we'll see how that goes. I love to sleep, and I miss the summer days when I slept until the time when, now, fifth hour would be starting. Oh, well.

Random Access Memory
y ______n_____ a
a______ t _____ r
n ______h_____ t
_______ o _____i
_______ n_____ n
_______ y_________________

Holiday was pretty great, up until about an hour ago when I started doing my danged homework. I'll jump back to the normal summary of days that I missed.

[friday] Night, Amber came over to see if I had her phone because she thought she left it in Jeremy's car. Which she did, but I didn't know at that point. My folks were at his apartment helping him move at that time, so I invited her in and we played Donkey Konga. In all my time knowing her, a little longer than nine years, we've never just hung out, just the two of us, on a Friday night, so it was pretty fun. We decided to go up to Chipotle, my second dinner, and eat it at the house and play some more DK. We went for maybe three hours collectively, so it was definitely a good end to the day.

[saturday] Morning, I woke up early and headed up to the school. We stretched, warmed up, and suited up to get on the buses. We drove up to CU and did our mental run through and then went directly to our practice field. Then we marched on and did the first two tunes, as that's all we've learned this year. Now, it isn't an actual competition, but it's just a day for bands to come and hear some feedback on their show, but I think we did really well. The judges told us balance was really good as was intonation, which surprised me. However, they said our marching technique needs some help. We watched some other bands and I was really impressed by Arapahoe's Western show. And of course, CU's band was amazing. It makes me want to join a drum and bugle corps before I go to college. Then Jake spent the night and we played Donkey Konga and then a lot of games on my 64, NES, SNES, GCN (leaving Halo out of the picture, somehow, lol).

[sunday] Was definitely the longest. Jake and I woke up to play some more Donkey Konga and after he left, my parents left, so I sat at home being bored instead of doing my HW. I played games and watched TV, but overall, I was very unproductive. But that's okay because I'm doing it now. Which is why I should actually go to bed and continue my thoughts in tomorrow's entry. G'day.

Things I've done today:

1.) Realized I'm pretty confident we'll do well at tomorrow's competition at CU Band Days.

2.) I've convinced three people into buying a Rev by showing them pics of the controller and talking about it's capabilities. It was pretty awesome.

3.) Learned I've got a lot of homework to do this weekend.

4.) Learned that Lauren can't make it to the dance. So I guess I just go by myself or not at all. Being single ain't all it's cracked up to be.

It's one of those 'meh' sortof days.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure.