As We Stumble Along, We're Off to See The Wizard

Complete Side Note: We pass Franklin Regional on our way to Slickville every Sunday. My heart goes out to them, I have no idea what they're going through but I admire their strength and resolve during this whole insanity. Stay Strong, FR.

So this week I did something I've never done: I saw two musicals two nights in a row. On Thursday I was at Bishop Canevin for their Drowsy Chaperone and I was at Carlynton for their production of The Wizard of Oz. Some background: the first Carlynton show I was in was Drowsy two years ago, and Oz was the first Carlynton Show I've had no involvement in since 2011's 42nd Street where I was an usher. 

Canevin's version of Drowsy was fantastic, and I may be biased because I know the show so well, but it was so nice to hear the music flood back. There's something to be said for watching a live show with a live orchestra, and to know the show word for word. I went for that reason: I never really saw Drowsy live because, well, I was in the show. 

On Friday I went to see Carlynton's The Wizard of Oz, which was AMAZING. Everyone (Clay, Greg, Maggie, Natalie, Mikaela, Andy V, Dave, so many more, all of you!) was great, and the show was technically done well. Overall it was an amazingly enjoyable experience, and everyone involved should be proud.

It donned on me Friday that I haven't actually sat through a production in the auditorium seats in about three years. Generally, I am either on tech for something, or I'm on stage for something. In one sense, it was nice to sit back and have it all handled, and have a seat that was assigned.

In another sense I was totally and hopelessly lost. This is my kingdom: this is the auditorium we clean, maintain, and do the best tech work we can. What can I say? I'm a control freak. I enjoy being a cog in the wheel, not the one reading the watch.

It wasn't necessarily bad that I wasn't a part of it, it was just strange not being a part of it all. After it all, I still (stressful as it always is) prefer the lighting stand or stage manager's stand to being in the audience. It's just how I am.

Saturday I took the ACT at Canevin. Another first: I've never been in a Canevin classroom until then.

I hope to get something out for Tuesday (Mon Anniversaire) or Friday (but you realize, this is going to be one crazy week for us... If I don't, Happy Easter to you all!). 

Explaining the MVB, and the Beginning of a School Year.

Hello Followers and people visiting from CBSPittsburgh.com!

So this morning I get an email from CBS (as in Scott Pelley CBS and former VIACOM CBS) telling me that I am finalist for Pittsburgh's MVB (Most Valuable Blogger) contest in the category of "Everything Else".  What does this mean? It means that I am a nominee for something that I did!

Okay, so it basically means that I get to put a magic sticker on the side of my blog where you can click [or at the conveniently located sticker (look at the right!)] and vote for this blog once a day everyday until September 9th, when we see who wins this contest!

So what is the blog about? Well, its basically a conglomerate of thoughts and rants from this game we all call life. I am going to put some links at the bottom of this post for some good examples... but you can browse using the nice tags on the side.

Who am I? In short, I am a teenage web designer, boy scout, and a freelance media artist/writer. 

The Beginning of a School Year.
So now is the lovely point of the year after we inevitably change a schedule based on what we like and actually take those classes. I have already pestered with my eventual English teacher about something trivial. A new thing this year is the fact that I will be attending a bunch of football and basketball and other games filming for Carlynton's public access channel (28 locally for Verizon). This means that I get to go to the press box and stay there for the whole time, and then get my stuff PUT ON TELEVISION!!!!

Finally, freshman year means that some of the people that I have been with in gym classes, and other stuff are no longer going to be the same. Take for example lunch period.... my friends are split 1/2 and 1/2 between periods, meaning this year will be interesting....

Links To Some Good Posts (Note: The older ones are random....)

• Tally Hall, and, well, TALLY HALL!
• About John Green and Some Stuff
• Whining about Gym Class in 2009
• About Taking Over the World in 2010

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:

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!

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.

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

This week has been rather hectic, as I state below, but you don't need to read all of it, just maybe some of it...

 

(another Mikaela Special)

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

I haven't Posted for about a week so here is the short version: 
MONDAY:
I stared a Fundraiser for Chorus. The Title is : "EVERYBODY WEARS SOCKS" which is not only funny but so true. The School decides to have every homeroom get they're own homeroom Representative. My homeroom has three nominated: Greg, Chris, and some guy named Alex. Monday, I was bit by a dog, but quickly recovered. The reason I couldn't blog was the homework.
TUESDAY:
I got the news that our teacher expected us to take an AR quiz by friday... and I was only 1/3 of the way through my book. That Night I read for a straight hour. I was then half way through the book.
GYM CLASS (Still Tuesday)
I had a waiver from Gym not to be on my foot as much because of the leg situation. They're idea of a lesser impact gym then playing softball was to walk the track, good thing I only have gym twice a week.
WEDNESDAY:
I had a (Surprisingly) semi- normal day. The people giving me grief in lunch weren't there. That day I read up to ten pages from the end.
THURSDAY:
Got the news that the AR quiz was not a huge deal, and I didn't have to finish the book on friday. More luck, but I wanted to know how it ended. Today was also the day I conveniently forgot the book in my locker, the one day I wanted to read the rest of the book. We'll see about tomorrow.

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,

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

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

Having a Marine as a World Cultures teachers has perks, and downfalls. I was staring at him and he stared at me for about a minute. although I am about two inches taller than he, I got that "I'm a teacher, be Afraid" look and the "I'm a marine, don't mess with me" look at the same time and it hit me: why is it so warm in here? oh, I'm wearing a hoodie.

Also having a gym teacher as a Health teacher gives a rare sense of humor and A LOT of sports tactics and stories. For once, a teacher has interesting stories to break the ice as opposed to bingo and writing assignments, its a switch.

I went to my bus stop this morning, and there I find a kid in a bunny costume. I kid you not, a bunny costume. so later in class, I said "someone at my bus stop was wearing a bunny costume..." immediately I got this: oh, I saw that guy in the library...

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

As of now we welcome you to a new segment, The Chronicles of Jr High: The Marine, Gym Class, and some Randomness. Today's excerpt is this:

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

"Normally a teacher is scary enough breathing down your back, but imagine this: a teacher who is a retired marine breathing down your back. If you've ever watched 'Mail Call' on the history channel, you know that marines can be a bit loud and menacing. A good friend of mine asked the teacher this: 'what are you: a navy person, airforce' I later pointed out to her that "Semper Fi" (always faithfull in Latin) was the Motto of the marines."
If you need a calendar of events for MATH class, (don't ask me why, but I use it for planner vs. assignmnents), Ms Trometta has a website, a google site (Im a google account person), and it is this: http://sites.google.com/site/mstrombettasmathpage/home
and she uses a calendar, which I will post as "School Events as opposed to the holiday calendar. I use the Calendar for Holidays, contact me or a staffer to assign a holiday,