Contrasts.

I'm not ready to talk about today's events; and I'm not sure I ever will. 

So yesterday I walked around my neighborhood as I usually do. I got a call from a neighbor to check out something that he had said was going over on his street. I go over and I see that there is an excavator tearing down a condemned house across the street from him.

For years, we had known this just as "Tom's House" a condemned house which we had deemed the monster house of the neighborhood. It had become a hotspot for drug users and other semi-illegal activity. It was a welcome sight to see it go down.

After I saw what was left of "Tom's House" I proceeded to go home and get ready for WYEP's Holiday Hootenanny, which is our annual fundraiser for our education department, and namely Re(imagine) Media.

There were two portions to the program: the VIP act featuring some of the bands from our Re(imagine) Media band competition, Re(imagiNATION) back in May. They performed for the VIP ticket holders, and then the general admission show started.

The general admission show consisted of three bands, Chet Vincent and the Big Bend, the Neighbors, and Mark Dignam and the House of Song. Each of these headlining bands played sets of 7 or so Christmas songs and featured local singers such as Emma Cox and Molly Alphabet.

The event was supposedly livestreamed to UStream, but I don't know because I was taking pictures for WYEP/Re(imagine) Media the whole time. When those are up, I will post a link. However, I have to clean them up a tad, since I was using a not-professional camera.

The entire station (or at least as many people that I know existed) showed up including our E&CE director Alexa, Sensei Matt, and my fellow Carlynton resident Mrs. Meyer. I was introduced to many amazing people, and it truly reminded me of a full-scale version of our Re(imagiNATION) back in May.

The idea that music brings people together seemed to be embodied by this event. Yeah, the people that were there were supporting us, but I think in a broader sense, it was something bigger than that. It truly was a 'holiday party' where all of us Re(imaginers) got to meet the people that make what we do possible. It's extremely humbling, and it was extremely awesome to be a part of.

And I think it's this togetherness that really makes me appreciate what we can do with a radio station, and with one another as creative people. it's a great feeling to feel so much support, and it felt like WYEP truly is more than a radio station - that we're a family of sorts. Some of us are distant, but we're still all together.

If you want to see our informational pieces, pictures of what we've done, or are just interested, check out our blog at reimaginemedia.blogspot.com

If you're interested in hearing the music that was the Holiday Hootenanny, you can listen to 91.3FM locally on Christmas Eve. If you don't live in Pittsburgh, go to WYEP.org on Christmas Eve.

Spending Some Time In The Studio

This past Saturday was spent hiking up yet another hill (This was a hill as opposed to the magical mountain of West Virginia (Wild and Wonderful) and then orienteering a bit followed by yet another trip to WYEP.

There's something amazing that happens when I am on a hike anywhere, call it a sort of awareness of what's around you or whatever, but bottom line, something amazing happens.

There's also something to be said for getting to a point where you have a map in the woods and need to decide how to get a group of eight people out of those woods and back to the cars from which they parked earlier. I don't know how to explain it, but something snaps and I go into this weird quasi-leadership mode, where I suddenly know more than I consciously realize.

After getting out of the woods, I hitched a ride down to the WYEP studios. I just love going down there. We start out in a conference room and then split off into groups working on the various projects that Re(Imagine) has taken on. We filmed a promo for the Re(ImagiNATION) contest that I am a part of, but (amazingly) I didn't make the video for.

Anyway, after helping take part in that, I went to one of their state-of-the-art recording studios with another Alex (not the Unicorn Alex, but another Alex) for about an hour just kicking around what will (Cross your fingers) become the podcast Alex Squared which will basically be our random podcast where we talk about stuff. It's still in EARLY development, but we're working on it.

There is something completely free, or possibly even carefree in radio that you don't have in television. Don't get me wrong, Television is absolutely amazing to work on. My point here is that you don't need to care about physical appearance to do radio.

Radio focuses solely on content, which I kind of like. Television and YouTube have this pressure of making things LOOK fancy as well as having good and short enough content to keep the viewer's attention, and it is stressful.

So keep tuned to our blog (moderated by me) at http://reimaginemedia.blogspot.com/ for more on our project.

Honus Wagner, Unicorns, and Peter McKay

Note/Warning: The following post contains a lot of links. -AP

Source: Baseball Hall of Fame

So for those of you who didn't know it, today was Honus Wagner's Birthday. For those of you who don't know who Honus Wagner was, please drop your laptop (Please not your desktop) on your foot, and then click this link here.

The reason I bring this up is because it is trivia that came to me via twitter, and Honus Wagner was from Carnegie (Originally Chartiers [#TheCarlyntonProject for the win!]). I have somewhat of an interesting connection to Mr. Wagner. His house is across the street from one of my troop member's houses, and my grandfather used to run beer to his house when he was a kid. Just goes to show, when not looking too hard for something, you can find stuff you never know you were looking for.

Anyway, my secret sister Mikaela was texting me earlier when I was gathering my thoughts to attempt to write another post. I at that time, as almost every other Friday, was wondering what to write about. She suggested the existence of Unicorns.

Source: Wikipedia

Unicorns, for those of you in the future who are without knowledge of what a Unicorn is, are magical horses with a horn protruding from its head and, in some depictions, can fly. However, loosely defined, anything with a singular horn protruding from its head can be considered a "unicorn" however it is not what we will call a true unicorn.

My friend Alex recently discovered that he is, indeed, a unicorn. (Again, loosely defined in this case). He has this bump that appeared square in the centre of his forehead. When he had it scanned for tumors or whatever, it turned out that this was actually Just his Skull. When I approached him on the matter, he said that "I could start my own RELIGION now that I'm now a unicorn."

As to whether or not that actually happens (Its just as sketchy as Tarvusim) is to be determined. Either way, know that my blog will be the #1 source for coverage on this Modern Unicorn-Driven Religion.

So Tomorrow is Saturday. Other than being the one day in a week where I can (rarely recently) sleep in and go to WYEP, it is also the one day where I actually read a portion of the paper. I usually just read page 2 (Because Page one is SOOO Mainstream :P ) the comics, whatever seems interesting in the Local News, and this magical column that I discovered.

This column is published once a week by a Ben Avon resident named Peter McKay who writes under the title of "Homemaking". Now, this really almost never has to do with actually making homes, or decorating homes, but rather what really makes up life. He talks about the things that make up life - the little pet peeves, the relationships, the stories that we all share but never publicize.

Basically, for those of you who know who Tom Bodett (again, if you don't educate yourself, then throw a dart at something) is, Peter McKay is a Pittsburgh version of Tom Bodett. If you want to check out his more recent columns, or the sort, check him out at http://peter-mckay.com/.

Sorry no adventure stories this week, but I will go someplace soon! And I will add another Super Special Bonus Blog Thing!

Side Note: From now on I am going to have a tag for blog posts that is "Unicorns"

This, In Turn, Kept the Professor Higher than His Students

Source: Wikipedia
PGH's Cathedral of Learning

That was what our tour guide Jamey told us in the German Room on the first floor of the Univ. Of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning.

I think the Germans get a relatively bad rep for having Hitler (HE WAS AUSTRIAN!) and, well, the Nazis. NOT ALL GERMANS Were/Are Nazis!

Anyway, last weekend I got the chance to go to the Cathedral of Learning on Pitts Campus. The Univ. of Pittsburgh has a beautiful campus (Minus the construction and hospital bustle) and some really unique buildings. The Cathedral has this grand hall on the first floor open to the public and students to study.

Anyway, surrounding this magical hall is a square-ish hallway with large brown doors with a plaque on each door and a coat of arms above the archway. Coats of arms have always fascinated me not for their intricacy or abstractness, but the fact that they are completely and utterly useless. Honestly, when am I going to use my family's coat of arms? I guess that's why I don't have one.

Anyway, when the university was building the building, they needed money to help build it. They told nationality groups (Germans, Greeks, Slovak, Russians, etc) that they would be provided with a room, but they would have to furnish and pay for everything in the room, keeping in mind that this was to
be used as a college room.

Its a unique idea that you cannot find anyplace else. Germans have the idea of a Professor above his class while the Chinese room focused on Confucius's teachings that the teacher can learn just as much as his pupils.

My favorite room by far was the English room. It was modeled after I believe the house of Parliament with more coats of arms (Including Ireland being the Unicorn) . I liked the room for three reasons - The first being that it had a brick from 10 Downing Street (PM's house), second being that its England and modeled after real England, and the third being that it is unexplainably haunted.

So if you get a chance, and you are in the area, check it out.

For the record, this post was written on the 5th, but posted on the 6th as it is Orthodox Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas to all of my fellow Orthodox friends, Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Oh, and HAPPY 2012!

Complete and Unadulterated Randomness

I have been listening more recently to a song called "Iridescent" by Linkin Park. Besides the minor fact that it is used for the Transformers Franchise, it is quite good. Hmm, to think about it, I don't know much about the Transformers Franchise to rant about it *googles, Clicks Wikipedia*.

So it turns out the Film Franchise is directed/produced/made awesome by Stephen Speilberg, and distributed by, you guessed it, Dreamworks and Paramount (VIACOM companies).

As my quick Wikipedia sums up, we can basically link everything to something else. We can all find some sort of origin, a common thread. Almost every Wikipedia article has at least one link. From my brief but extensive experience with wiki-ing (word?) that is quite easy to find a common thread, and to link from one place to another.

So recently I was able to take a ride on a bike trail literally five miles away from my house. I never knew it was there, but I soon learned that it existed, and learned the story of a railroad converted into a walk/bike trail. Every quarter mile or so, there was a bench. On a good percentage of those benches within the first four miles of trail had a plaque from an eagle project. Just going to show how everything is connected.

It seems that if we stop for thirty seconds and smell the flowers growing beside a highway, or the railroad that became a bike trail, we can learn so much more, and make our test of humanity almost studied for. I leave you with the commencement speech that new CBS anchor gave last year:

Pont Champlain, Light Boxes, and My New Life.

In my own new fashion, I will start with a quote from Adrianna Flack:

Life= live it fricking epicly

It is an interesting way of putting it, but it is true. I am now addicted to music. I have recently been listening to this song Your Ex-Lover Is Dead by Stars. Now, my ex-lover (do I even have one?) isn't dead, but its a great song. It mentions capturing a taxi and driving across Pont Champlain. I decided to look into this Pont Champlain, and was disappointed to realize that my limited French couldn't tell me that "Pont" really means "bridge". So, Pont Champlain is just the Champlain Bridge in Montreal Canada (yeah!)

I believe that life is kind of like an interstate (Oh, here he goes again), and our adventures are like bridges. I decided to take the one that goes to Canada, and meet some awesome people (See The List) and did some interesting things. In the past month I have:

  - Operated Sound for a talent show
  - Ran for SPL in a boy scouting troop
  - Went to a dance
  - Slow Danced with Two Girls
  - Listened to music
  - Got a combined total of about 20 service hours
  - Decided who I am
  - created The Carlynton Project (In Crystal Clear 1080p High Def!)
  - Ticked some people off (ha)
  - operated lights for a choral concert
  - went at least 10 miles on a track and on a bike
  - Rode a trolley
  - got commended by my superintendent
  - and turned 14.

Now, what have you done? Heck, I have done about 90 times that, but that is what I put in.

Someone once told me to join the band. I did. A year later I quit. That was probably what got me where I am. I love music, I just can't play an instrument worth my life. I got into journalism, web design, video production, people, and high school.

And this is just the beginning. Well, Good luck. I am crossing my bridge, find yours.

Why a Vlog Fails and the Carlynton Project.

I begin with a quote from myself....

It seems that the story of Carlynton's creation hasn't been told. With the proposed consolidation of the two elementary schools, may be a generation that does not see a Crafton Elementary and a Carnegie Elementary.

That is why I did the Carlynton Project, to look at the one unified district that the three towns had in mind. A simple 5-minute video project detailing the general history that everyone knows. Easy project right?

I should know by now that nothing is easy. Relationships, Politics, Baseball, and Carlynton Project all have at least one thing in common: It's Complicated. In order to pull off something as simple as a video project I fought off speed limit signs, woods, black-draped posters, and the web that is the streets of Crafton and Rosslyn Farms. It took months of research, planning, and scripting and at least three hours of editing to get to where it ended up. In the end, I have a 7-minute DVD in HD (So I can't watch it myself) and apparently a GATE project.

So, I submit three copies: One to my adviser, one to my supervisor, and the third to my uncle. My supervisor watched it a week after I submitted it with her daughter (who is a film major) and "loved it".  My adviser, well it took him about three weeks to figure out what it was.

Then, in front of the 7th grade teaching staff, he decides then to premier it. It received the best reviews for a video that I have ever made. He decided the next day to deliver it to the PR director for the district... who is also the secretary for the school district.

She decides to premier the project in front of the whole school board the next day. I have no knowledge there was even a board meeting. The following day, today, the superintendent walks over to me at lunch and asks for a copy for the district. He apparently liked it... a lot.

So this is how a project snowballs. Not through YouTube, but through word-of-mouth. Not through 99 cents per click, but through giving a DVD to your world cultures teacher (yes, the marine) and seeing what happens. Vlogging fails because the story gets told but never gets seen. This is the story, the story to be continued.

Post EIGHTY and Some Randomness

Well, first off, I would like to acknowledge that Marie Popichak (aunt that I rarely talk about) decided to write about my John Green obsession, and that this is post EIGHTY since I started. You can read her post: Just Click Here. I rarely acknowledge that other websites exist, except mine (of course, does a painter acknowledge other works?), but hers is truly something to check out. Never have I seen such a website that had just about as much randomness on it as I do here, so check it out.

Ok, I promised randomness. I want to add a few things to two posts ago (the post before last): it turns out that Canadians, Justin Bieber, and Italians have one thing in common: BAD arguments.

Justin Bieber, regretfully for me, hails from Canada. I wish I could pull up a transcript from my fight with Lindsey, but it basically went like this:

I tell her my master plan about Canada, sneaking in a part about finding a nice Canadian girl to hide in the woods from the US government... harmless, right? Well, I guess not. I say some stupid things, and next thing I know Cristy (LONG STORY) is telling me that apparently Justin Beiber is the middle of our fight. Well, news for you Cristy: IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH JUSTIN BEIBER.

Anyway, it appears that "Beiber" isn't a word (ha) according to FireFox, so I saw those red squiggles underneath the word "Beiber." Also, I decided that the part of Canada that Beiber is from is NO LONGER part of Canada, because Canada is too awesome to be a

Oh, the newest in Easysites Videos is here: office WORKER starring clay BODNAR. I am tired of embedding and re-doing Youtube Videos, so click here:
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Rb8mCdFOM& <<<

Well, the next one I think might have to do with Butterscotch the bird, mirrors, and Frank Sinatra. 

Questions and ideas in the Doobly-doo!

Moving Day

No, I didn't decide to move into that box underneath I-79. I finally, after about a year and a half, built myself a desk. It wasn't an easy task, heck it took me about three hours, and the help of my father to get the thing finally built.x

So you get these things from Wal-Mart or Target or Wherever in this nice compact, maybe 2x4x6 box thing that weighs about 100 pounds. The fun part is picking it up from the back of the store, and wheeling it around the labyrinth of aisles of clothing, and the people that drive around cluelessly with their carts as you are trying to wheel this awkward 100 pound box around tight corners in something meant for moving construction equipment.

So eventually you take this thing into your house, and try to build it. It's never simple. I was forcing these little things into holes just a tad too small for that specialty part when my dad says "that is the easiest part." NOT a good sign for a thirteen year old clearly in over his head with building something simple.

Well, after forcing screws, tacks, and other thingamajigs, it turns out that you spent about three hours of building a desk. This was about the time that both my father and I discovered that we put some things on backward. Oops. Anyway, it was built completely and (almost) right about 4 hours after opening it.

I will save the ranting about getting the thing upstairs for you. Anyway, you have this new desk, and about six boxes of things that you want in a desk. Needless to say, there is about two boxes still full upstairs. Either way, I am done for now. Questions? Please, by all means, COMMENT! I run out of material easily, so help me out!

2011, Communications, and Yelling

Ok, welcome to the 2011 year! Wow, I haven't posted here in a while.
What has changed? Well, not much. I am in the midst of the CarLynTon, BBC, and Project 559 projects. I am also in the midst of redoing ESMP. I am also in the midst of midterms, a confusing ideology, and a troop communications nightmare.
Communications is an interesting concept. It is the idea of communicating ideas, information, and thoughts to a broad group. In other words, broadcasting with text and pictures rather than words, sounds, and a camera. When I signed up to be e-mail guy for Troop 831, I had no idea what I was getting into. At least now they have a working calendar (which I need to update now) and website.
However, information needs to be kept up-to-date, and ideas are ever-changing. A schedule one minute can be changed in fractions of that. Oh well, there is the trade I am in.

One of my new favorite catch phrases is "If I do something, I will get yelled at for it!" Which really holds true for most things. Take today for example:
Troop calendar needs updated, and e-mailed NOW! I don't have my computer on, I get yelled at.
Girl named Cathryn starts a texting conversation (which I am not good at to start with) and apparently her boyfriend gets angry with me... Heck, I am getting Indianonians angry with me!
I am on the computer too long updating my blog... goodnight universe!

Relationship Statuses and Wal*Mart (Part One)

It seems to be a groundbreaking issue when someone changes their relationship status or, for that matter, anything else on Facebook. GET OVER IT AMERICA, Facebook isn't gospel. The most obnoxious comments come from the people that have 30 people listed as their sibling. I drew the line at calling Clay my "Romanian Cousin" there. To a certain degree, that holds truth. That is a short story, but I won't put that here....

The reason, I guess, that I decided to title this the way it is, is that the past 72 hours really accomplished a lot... I got a major portion of my research regarding the CarLynTon project, and I now have a job as a docent there on Saturdays... and I suggest no one ask for me directly, as I won't start for a while.

I also add this post for the reason of probably the first Project 559 production: Wal*Mart. I think that as a whole, the company needs to be shut down. The man at the Electronics Dept. didn't even ask me if I wanted to keep my Gift card. He just tossed it away like day old banana peel. I was overall offended. Next, the guy charged me about $14 for a few audio adapters! Wing-chow, the usual suspect. "Designed in the US, and Manufactured in China" my left foot! The rest of the trauma will be posted later... besides, the Star in Wal*Mart doesn't need to be a star, it should really be a dot or dash. They aren't all American like originally, or so I am told (It's been Chinese since I was little)!

Back to Journalism

Quite frankly, I haven't written anything regarding journalism for about two years. That was the Web Gazette, and that was probably the defining moment of where I am now. I reversed roles, from being the editor to the writer. I decided, since it won't be reproduced, to present to you my whack at it:

PITTSBURGH, PA ,--- On December 9, selected CHS 7^th and 8^th graders enjoyed the opportunity to go to the Consol Energy Center to watch the Penguins Open Practice. The event featured appearances by star Pens including Sydney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury. Eighth-grader Samantha Y said that she “enjoyed seeing the Penguins players… I thought [the Consol Center] was nice. Not elegant, but nice.”

The Consol Energy Center is the Penguins new state-of-the-art arena which easily held the more than 10,000 students from the area in attendance. Eighth-grader Samantha Youngblood spoke to the Cougar Chronicle about the event.

"I enjoyed seeing the Pittsburgh Penguins Players" Samantha said, "We were three rows from the ice!"

Eight grader Olivia K commented on the seats of the new arena, "They had soft and fuzzy seats," Olivia said, clearly pleased with the trip.

The students were picked based on behavior, grades, and overall positivity both in the classroom and out. Two hundred students from CHS attended the event, and got front-row seats to the Penguins drills, exercises, and of course, the running of the Zambonis.

-Alexander Popichak, Staff Writer, The Cougar Chronicle

So there, I am a journalist again. Now for the kicker... while all had two weeks to put their relatively 'fluff' articles together, I threw that not-so-hard-hitting story together in one night.

Might I also mention, yet again, that I haven't written anything like that for TWO YEARS. Thank you Carnegie Web Gazette.

Christmas Lights

"Oh, Christmas Lights, Keep Shining On!" The words to one of my favorite bands, Coldplay, 's Christmas song. Not exactly the next group version on Bing Crosby, but a good song nevertheless. The title to the song is "Christmas Lights" which is what I really wanted to blog about, not the song.

For the past few years, I have been spearheading the decorating and maintaining the outdoor decorations for the front of our house. This is a long process, and it starts in October, with Halloween. However, I will spare the time, and explain the process of Christmas.

What eventually happens is that I start sketching general outlines of my house, and start with the basics: electrical laying. Keep in mind, my father and mother DO NOT ALLOW me to start ANYTHING until the day after Thanksgiving. This year, I started what is outside now the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

What's Lighted, What's Not (as of 12/4/2010)

Then I lay what needs to be out, or what is "required" that includes my father's "Snoopy on a doghouse" and the haybale, courtesy of Halloween leftovers. From there, I add and subtract what I need, and decide what needs thrown away.

As for the inside, you would think I would go all out in my bedroom, right?I have the following: one sting of garland. It drapes over my dry-erase board, and the multipurpose board. And a string and one half over my pinewood plaques and shelf.

Back to that song. I decided to put it at the top of the website. Click Play if you wish, right under the logo.

Questions, I like that! Post in the comments, or just comment.

Natalie

Natalie is one of those characters that cannot be described. She is a person that, much like me, has a blog (although not that impressive). On this blog, she has started a series called Carlynton Is Crazy which is basically a knock-off of my series: The Chronicles of Jr. High: The Marine, Gym Class and Some Randomness. I take it as a compliment, and at the same time an insult. You see, Natalie is one of the people that. for no apparent reason, everything she says annoys me. It's not that she is a bad person, she just plain old gets on my nerves.

Now onto my blog. I have recently added a new "legal" page to the top bar. This was put in place at the advice of my legal adviser. This is an effort to have further 'incidents' regarding this blog stopped. So, that's admin stuff.


Gym Class:
Ok, much like Ms. Thomas, I wish to also rant about gym class. So, to save me the grief, I will copy-paste her words, and add my own comments. <Source: http://natsrandomsite.blogspot.com/2010/11/first-of-many.html >

So today we had gym. It was Fitness Day! Basically we all get numbers (1-7) and are told to go to different 'Fitness Stations' according to the number. Obviously people get their numbers and then ignore them and go with friends, as with any non-surprise of the teenage world.

Pull Ups: I failed. Hah. This can't come as much of a surprise to my blog readers, for I am much out-of-shape, and a failure to humanity as a whole.

Step Ups: Ok, this is a pointless event. You step up onto a bleacher, and then back onto the floor.

Jump Rope: I once again failed, as Clay made a mockery of me, without a surprise

Planks: You are supposed to lay flat then hold yourself up with your arms in an awkward position. Pointless. Painful.

Push Ups: This might be the only 'normal event' of the whole day.
Wall Sits: I don't know why Ms. Thomas omitted this portion, I guess she just forgot. Anyway, you basically lean on a wall, and keep your feet in a sitting position. Greg made the comment that 'this is the one thing that I could do all day!' which basically means that he mastered the art of weight distribution.

I want to talk next about 'nerd-con' as Natalie called it, but I will call it by its real name (SciTech). Thanks a lot Natalie. We are all reading, and we are a captive audience.

Halloween

I decided to even out the blog posts currently on here. As of today, this post that you are reading is #70! Anyway, I was passing out candy to small children. After a while, I got bored between people, so I started tallying them up.

This was another "Social Experiment" because the news always says what kids will be wearing... and I decided to prove, at least KeenObservers.com wrong!

K.O. Said:
-AVATAR (James Cameron) is popular
Popular:

• True Blood
• Twilight’s Edward and Bella
• Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland
• Jersey Shore’s Snooki (SERIOUSLY!!!! COME ON!)
• Harry Potter and the gang
• The Office
• Toy Story 3
• Super Mario and Luigi
• Batman
• Super-Man
• Darth Vader

 Well, Here are some of the actual popular costumes (2+ people, or unique)

• Witch (9)
• Princess(4)
• Spiderman (3)
• Pirate(2)
• The Incredible Hulk (2)
• Thing 1 or 2 (1 each)
• Dinosaur (2)

      I just plain liked these:

• Military Dude
• Fat Guy
• Horseman from some Apocalypse movie
• Ski-Masked Sombrero-Wearing Low-Budget Ninja (ok, that was me...)

I did, mind you, see Batman, Superman, Luigi, and Lady Gaga. However, to my pleasure, I didn't see SNOOKI or Twilight or any of that whole TEAM Jacob or TEAM Edward crap.

That ends Halloween, and now onto Thanksgiving and Christmas!


An After Note: I didn't see many people that I knew... I didn't see Clay or Andrew or Jeff, but I did see my friend's cousin Ivan!

Polio, CarLynTon, Halloween, and other stuff

Please note: this post will be written over a period of time!

I'd like to thank all of you for your continued support with everything. My blog is a mishmash of me ranting abou everyday things. My next question: Why must High School come with some much drama?

I was recently approached by my pretty good friend about a video contest. It is concerning Polio, and how it affected life as we know it. I am going into this as my first real video project. I am going to start over. That DnC Show was a great concept, the JSVH a great temporary success, and Total Randomness: COME ON! I only have so many blooper reels. So, with my good friend, I am going into this. I prefer not to talk about it, but I can give only some information. However, I am going to have people with music, stories, and a not-so-professional writer!

Halloween. One of my least favorite holidays. Sure, I put on that whole, "I love Halloween" act. Honestly, it is the one day out of the year where people are given an excuse to act something that they aren't. So, you are telling me that you want to portray SNOOKIE or something like FREDDY CROUTON! Anyway, people, myself included, act like something that they are not all of the time. I can quite frankly be schizophrenic... angry at one point, and break down laughing the next.

CarLynTon: a story of how things became what they are today. My next great project, and the one that may have any potential this year. Yes, I contemplated going onto the "BBC 2 1/2 Forever" mode, but that is just illogical. Much like Disney, I can only hold onto an audience for long. Well, more details to come.

Sidenotes, and some "The Chronicles of Jr High: The Marine, Gym Class, and some Randomness"

As for friends in the website community, I have a few (Joscelyn, Sara, Mikaela) I have also stumbled upon the only person so far who knows websites like the back of his hand. His name is Ty, and so I consider him a person of interest.
In other news, my friends Jeff, Mikaela, Clay, Natalie, and I are going to be working on a joint project: "The Jeff Variety Hour [but its only 10 minutes]" so that has also what I've been Working On, so now some "Chronicles"
[in case you are wondering, I do indeed like this series]

The Chronicles of Jr High: The Marine, Gym Class, and some Randomness

As for some of the things that helped me survive school so far, I can't list all of them, but here's the one which I get most asked: " Why do you carry all of those books?" The answer is: I have three minutes to get to class, so I don't want to slow down by going to the locker every class. As a result, I get to all of my classes early except lunch, so it all works out.
The Election: each homeroom is asked to nominate a "Homeroom Representative" within the class, and normally its either a popularity contest, or some common sense (Gasp!) is used to choose a leader. In homeroom 227 [my homeroom] we had three nominations: Chris, Greg, and I. In reality, we needed four nominations, but I don't think anyone really cares. So on Monday, we get the ballot, and vote. Tuesday, no results, Wednesday, no results. Eighth period today, the PA system announces that all student government is to be at OPEN HOUSE a half hour early. There, they will be tour guides. So here's my point: If we found out who won tomorrow, one of us will have to be at open house and spend 2 hours with the teachers that just celebrated the long weekend beginning, or we don't find out, and none of us has to go.
In Gym class: we played a game of "Capture The Flag" with a bowling pin in place of a flag. When you have a large gym class (60-65 kids) it is really interesting to have two teams charging at each other for no reason. The best part: the teacher was watching us like a science experiment from the comfort of a balcony.
Just another day of Jr. High.

Good News, Bad News, and Some "Chroinicles"

Bad News: I was trashed by Sara for using HER Bad Pun Wednesday as a holiday, I apologize Sara.
Good News: This is the 20th post EVER on this website: See the special Header above until we post again.
Now for what you came for, The Chronicles:

The Chronicles of Jr High: The Marine, Gym Class, and some Randomness

Last Week, there was rumored Pep rally everyone was excited, no pep rally that day. Today, we had a random pep rally. Apparently the band and football players were notified, but I wasn't so it was a surprise pep rally in a sense. This 'Pep Rally' had no sense at all. The eight and seventh graders were sitting on the floor watching the band play a few songs (They are great!!!!) the cougar dance around a bit, and some people that really need belts. ZachM Put in in good words: "Pull up your pants!!!!!" So in a sense, Logan said that it was sort of a "disapointment."


As an update, today we played "Super Soccer" in gym, and why it is called "Super" I have absolutely no clue. It may have to do  with the fact that the ball was a red-and-blue exercise ball. Still no clue.



When we last let the Marine, he was talking to a good friend of mine about the "Communist Party Shirt." Today, he was wearing a simple turtle-neck with the word "STEELERS" on the side (GO PITTSBURGH STEELERS!!!!!) because every last day of the week is "Casual Friday." So Yesterday another friend of mine answered the question "What do my clothes say about me?"  he was referring to the fact that he was wearing a tie and nice pants. She simply said "That you're uptight and wear ties all the time" I'm surprised she didn't get the famed "Stare Down" So anyway, point of the story, even teachers can loosen up.

The Chronicles of Jr High: The Marine, Gym Class, and some Randomness

But First, here's the weekly comic for "Bad Pun Wednesday" please submit ideas here: 2015 blogger Comic Strip

The Chronicles of Jr High: The Marine, Gym Class, and some Randomness

So as the week progresses, the teachers each want a bit more and add a bit more to the curriculum, as expected.
Each teacher adds a little bit of homework/studying. So, with six real periods, and each teacher adds a bit, you end up with a lot of homework, or notebooks (Depending on the teacher.)

In Gym Class, we thought that Tuesdays were play days, and Thursdays were wrong, or at least thats what we were told. We were wrong. On Tuesday, we had the wonderful "Beep Test." This not only illustrates how out of shape some people are, it also accents the poor acoustics in the gym PA system. Some lady comes on and says, ready set, BEEP!!!!. Then it plays music to pass the time. This music gets annoying after the sixteenth time. That's Surviving Jr High Gym in a nutshell.

Back on the second or third day of school, a good friend of mine wore a T-shirt titled "The Communist Party". It had soviets in party hats and lampshades on their heads, the true meaning of a bad pun. So, Our Marine World Cultures teacher said, "I battled those [People] for thirty years, and it pains me to see shirts like that." He was just joking, but to those reading this he probably sounded serious. Now on the eleventh day of school, he wore the same shirt in honor of "Bad Pun Wednesday." In eight period, Our Marine said this: "I battled those [people] for thirty years, so whats with the shirt, seriously?" He got a laugh out of that one. A funny marine, who knew, well now you know.

Pillars of Salt, Pillars Of Sand....

As for anyone that was there for last year's graduation picnic know, the majority of people said that Viva la Vida by Coldplay was their favorite song. It caused me to go out and buy it, a really round-a-bout way of doing it. anyway, long story short, I added a widget over to the top right above the Calendar. To listen while you read click that,

The Chronicles of Jr High: The Marine, Gym Class, and some Randomness

Being me is a rather funny life, and you see a lot of random people, places, and things.
As I sit in the front left seat of the bus, like I do everyday, here come three people (who I assume are 10th graders) walking up and two of them sit in the seat next seat over, and one sits next to me,
(on the first day of school the same 10th graders sit nearby, and asked me some questions "How do you like the high school?", "What's Your Name?", and my personal favorite "Are you sure you are a seventh grade?") I am a bit uncomfortable with a full backpack, a gym bag, and some girl named Sarah (not Sara M, she's in 2015) she said "Hey, you're that seventh grade person" "Yes" "and What's Your Name" "We covered this yesterday, as well as last week, its Alex"

So, today, according to the calendar, Was picture Day. Having Gym 1st period has perks and disadvantages. For one, pictures were 2nd period, and you don't wanna be hot and sweaty for that, so I decided to go to the weight room. We weren't allowed to go in without 25 push-ups, and 50 pull ups/crunches. Just my luck.

So I guess thats it for now,