When there isn't enough resources for everybody, chaos ensues. You saw what happened in New Orleans after Katrina. And what happens in bad neighborhoods. People will hurt or even kill people to get what they need to survive. And when the global population is so great that the resources of the world can't support it, the same thing will happen.

What can we do to prevent this from happening? Well, there's a limit to what Mother Nature can provide for people. We can't increase that, unless we look to expanding production. But production takes the lives of other animals. And even if we do that, earth is only so big- we'll be forced to stop expanding at some point.

The only real solution is to stop reproducing so quickly. Seven billion people!? People are already complaining about how oil isn't being produced quickly enough to suit humanity. Eventually, more and more resources will end up just like oil. And eventually, they'll become scarce. We just won't be able to support people anymore!

If we slow the growth in population, the longevity of the human race will increase. If we slow the growth in population, we will have more time before such chaos ensues.

Ideally, if we prevent the forthcoming of people, we will want to choose to prevent the worst people from coming to be. But how can we judge beforehand what the child will be like? The only hints we have are the conditions surrounding the new child. If the parents see that the child would be raised in an unsuitable environment in which the child would grow to be heavily flawed, they abort the child. In doing so, they are preventing what they see as a life that would grow to be troubling and problematic for the child itself and for the world around it. This controls the growth of the population, therefore increasing the longevity of the earth, and it tends to help keep the world ridden of low-lived people.

This is why abortion is good for society.

And don't give me "Jesus says so" as a counter-argument.

Dear Soulja Boy

Dear Soulja Boy,

I am writing to inform you that it is okay to pronounce the last letter of a word in the English language. It has occurred to me that you don't pronounce the last letter of any word. I don't know whether or not you are misinformed of the ways of the English language, or you are making some sort of statement. But seriously, it's annoying. Stop.

New discovery:

For common people, +possessions = -creativity
If people are coming up with more and more items with more and more purposes, and they sell them, then the R&D people working for corporations are the ones doing all the thinking. Back in the 1800s, people had to CREATE their own fun. They didn't have ipods or soccer balls. They made up their own games to pass the time. Now that we have all of these recreational items with set purposes, we don't have to create our own fun. Everything is mass-produced-- nobody creates anything anymore except for corporations bearing the purpose of making money.

IT'S OVER!

First semester is OVER! Halle-fucking-lujah! I'm chillin' at home with nothing to do, and loving every minute of it...The only problem is that I have a headache from being sick and from staring at computer screens. Today I went driving around Christmas shopping and taking pictures of signs in DuPage County. Now my eyes are tired as hell- I drove back in rush hour traffic. Traffic would be so much better if they didn't have traffic lights that CHANGE AFTER ONLY FIVE FUCKING SECONDS OF GREEN! Some examples include Route 59 and Aurora Ave and the one at Aurora Ave and Route 34.

Driving through DuPage County is pretty monotonous. A residential area, then a shopping center, a residential area, a shopping center. And the shopping centers all have the same stores. It's like small businesses don't even exist- nothing is unique anymore.

Check out the quote wall on facebook- it's newly updated!

Augh, it's been a while

I went sledding on Sunday with Tyler and Colin, and I was surprised. The hill we went to was really bumpy, and my ass got pummeled landing back on the ground after all the bumps. Colin ramped off of a bump on his snowboard, and flew twenty feet forward into a bush. Today I spent three and a half hours plugging my seventh song into the computer. I found last week that SIBELIUS HAS DISAPPEARED FROM THE COMPUTERS IN THE MUSIC LAB, meaning I CAN'T WRITE ANY MUSIC DOWN ANYMORE. So I had to resort to using a crappy version of Finale Notepad that I downloaded over two years ago. I tried to download an updated version, but it didn't work. So I had to use a crappy old piece of shit program that is so lacking, it's frustrating. You can't switch time or key signatures mid-song! What the shit is that? Triplets don't work properly either. Finals are next week.....sheeeeeyit. I only have two though: Data and ad chem. I'm going to really have to work on that ad chem final.

Look for "Metal Gear Awesome" and other videos by egoraptor. They're really funny.

Final project for Hancock, Ad chem test, and a macro final, all Friday. I need to sleep so I can study.

I'm looking at my life, one to six years into the future. How I can't wait to be free. I can do whatever I want (within monetary restrictions). I look at how my mom wants a lot of things, and how my dad doesn't want to do enough work to get her those things. And I think about it....who needs things? What does owning stuff do for you?

My mom has a certain towel rack in the bathroom that holds towels that we aren't supposed to use. So what is the purpose of those towels? To look pretty? Mom sees it as decoration; I see it as a waste.

I guess the suburbs are a nice place to live. I don't think we need this large of a house, though. How is it any more useful to us to have a house that costs $100,000 more than someone else's?

You can spend $140 on a fancy light fixture you can put up in your house, and it'll sit there forever- well, until it breaks. Or you can spend $60 on gas and $80 on a hotel room and explore some new destination. The object doesn't last forever, but the experience does. I'd rather spend the money on experiencing something and doing what I love than having some material object.

I think that when I'm out of college, I'll be staying in a small house or apartment somewhere, and saving all the surplus income I get to invest in more experiences. I'll have the everyday costs that go toward rent/mortgages, energy bills, phone bills, water bills, taxes, food, clothing, and other expenses. But almost everything else will go toward traveling and exploring.

I'm 1 8. I think? Right? I still don't feel it. I don't feel like I have any more privleges, though it does sort of feel like I have less blockades in my way. And I most certainly do feel OLD.

I haven't seen Caitlin since late Thursday. Only one day and it feels like something's missing. But the fact that something's missing just tells me that something is definitely there.

I have limited access to my mind.
I need to sleep.
More in the morning.

Strong Bad isn't the only one who can have a Bottom 10

This entry will continually be updated with things that I find are the worst things ever and the things that are the best things ever.
So this is my Best Things Ever List:



And here is the Worst Things Ever List:

My opinion: Facebook > Myspace

I think I figured out why facebook is more mature than myspace.

Facebook's purpose is to network people to their friends. Myspace's purpose is more about posting information about yourself...Not personal information, but it's to help someone learn about that person more. But if you're mature enough, you know that if you want to get to know someone, you TALK TO THEM! You can't do that over the internet! That's just stupid, to all of us older people with social experience. Younger people don't know enough to find that meeting people over the internet is stupid, though. Facebook knows what they're doing, though. They know why most people any older than 15 use sites like myspace, facebook, xanga, etc. It's to connect them to their friends in a convenient way. Don't get the chance to see how one of your friends are doing? Look online! Leave messages, send greetings, keep in touch, communicate-- that's what it's about. More mature people know that you don't meet people over the internet--but you can communicate with those friends that you have already made over the internet. Now THAT makes sense. Facebook knows that it is sensible to use an online networking site like itself, myspace, xanga, and the like, to keep in touch and communicate with friends, and that meeting people online is a load of crap. So it aims to serve the sensible purpose.

Doesn't that make sense? Really, now--let me know if it doesn't.

I really need to work out more. It's my New Year's Resolution. I know it's not the New Year for you, but it is for me. I just turned 18. So from my perspective, it is the new year. The year nineteen A.P.

About that being 18...still not feeling it. Maybe it's because I'm not big on wanting stuff.

The kanji (Chinese character used by the Japanese) for the word for "busy" has the kanji for the word for "death" in it. Makes sense to me.

I hope I can get a camera soon. I'm REALLY itchin' for one o' dems road trips.

Today I went to Woodman's with Macy, played smash with the quad, and hung out in 02 with Valerie. I talked to a lot of people I don't talk to as much as I would like today, like Phoebe, Winnie, and Jessica. That's always really good.

I got 10 hours of sleep last night, yet I'm still tired. What the fuck.

First...a few thoughts. I'll put these at the front, because I think that it's really important that I write them down before they get shoved back in the big, large, gray, dusty storage room in the back of my mind.

People are like sponges: the more holes the people have, the more absorbent they are.

Human potential doesn't vary a whole lot for most groups of people. Each person's accessibility to their potential does vary greatly, though, and their potential to excel at certain things varies too; different people have a knack for different things.

We are all superheroes. What are your powers?

Well, now that that's over:

It's times like these when I can take a look around me and find that I see so many awesome people when I do. Some of the people who show their inner awesomeness are ones from which you don't expect to find it. And still others show more awesomeness than I could have ever imagined-- well, a certain someone. : )

She made a card for me. Just a little thing she put together with colored pencils and a sheet of printer paper. But it is just the sweetest little thing. It beats the crap out of all those cards that you pick up at the store with their generic humor. I read through her cute little card, and I am just immobilized. And it's not because I'm tired and that it's late at night.

My family, the Dopps, and Colin came to school! With pasta. Cold, but damn good pasta. And Tucker came with entertainment, even if it wasn't intended for me. He brought a GameCube. The Dopps got me this collection of world maps (awesome) and staff paper (w00t), my grandma sent me some money (good, cuz I need it to save up for a camera), and Zexi, out of the blue, got me these audio CD's with which I can learn stuff about Japanese! WAS NOT expecting that.

Then I played Melee on the GC that was there. I played as Yoshi. People were like "wtf? Who's Yoshi? He sucks!" And then I won, got 2nd place (because of a sudden death where I got bombed-lame), and then got 1st again. Damn right. Don't talk shit about Yoshi. (That goes for you, too, Macy.)

I can't believe all of the cool stuff people did for me. That's partly because I don't believe that it's my birthday. I don't feel it at all. It's nice that all you people picked this day to give me all this neat stuff, but why today? Am I going to leave somewhere? OR DIE? PLEASE tell me I'm not going to DIE...just kidding. I know, I just don't know deep down. It hasn't sunk in.

And thanks to everyone who casually told me "happy birthday," in whichever way you individually chose to do it. Whether you used Facebook, in the hallway, referring to me as "Chuckles," or giving me the cutest little piece of 8 1/2"×11" paper I have ever seen, let alone received, I thank you.

I don't know about turning eighteen, but experiencing all of these people being so kind and loving toward me, even when I didn't expect it in some cases, really makes me feel great.

I GOT A COWBELL!

I ask myself this question: Why should the knowledge I gain from life be held by me alone? What good is it if it only helps one person?

So apparently, Zexi and I have both come up with an idea.

Objects are made up of atoms, where small electrons revolve around a nucleus, and most of the volume inside them is empty space.
Galaxies are made up of stars, where small planets revolve around a star, and most of the volume inside them is empty space.
What if we're sitting on an electron, revolving around the nucleus of an atom in a substance in a world that's over an octillion (10^27) times larger than this one?

I hate this transitioning. Either be warm or snow, damnit.

Halloween

Dear, whoever-the-hell-is-reading-this,

Today was Halloween. I was Luigi, Ashwin was Mario, and Macy was Wario. The other two guys shoved a bunch of pillows down their shirts so they'd be fatter- it was funny.

This is probably going to be an RSP, since I'm kind of dazed right now...

Anyway, Caitlin and Tyler came with us. Tyler wore 7 layers of clothes and 2 hats...but it made for an AWESOME hobo costume. We had pizza, and Tyler's brothers entertained us with their little-brother-ness. It was fun.

Before that, though, we went to the Caterpillar plant in Montgomery (though they call it CAT Aurora), and had a long walk around the buildings. Everywhere, there were REALLY large pieces of steel and people moving and welding parts. There were a lot of giant machines cutting and fashioning the parts, and these robotic forklift thingies that RAN BY THEMSELVES! They were basically automatons moving parts from place to place without direct human control! I was like DAAAAAANG.

The bus was like 40 minutes late though. I got up at 7:30 for nothing.

Ths z m mtrn. Y cn chr t dkd ut f y wnt bt n tht ts ntfr y tu reed.

Translated:

This is my muttering. You can try to decode it if you want but know that it's not for you to read.

N th bgust hlt v th day znt fr y t n newz. Bt t md me xtml hpy.

So there's your information for the day!

Figures. The day we decide to go to the haunted house, there's a freeze warning.

Oh well.

So that whole "nine clouds" thing on facebook...what's that about? I'll tell you what it's about..

It's finally official! Caitlin and I are going out now, and it RULES! She is SO cool...this is AMAZING. I could go on and on.

I got a bunch of stuff for the quad for Halloween. They had better go along with it--my mom will be pissed if she spent all this money for nothing. I hope I can get the quad to come trick-or-treating back in my neighborhood. It would be fun. Hooray for Halloween falling on an I-day!

Party City really makes "Halloween" into exactly what Carlos Mencia says it is: "Dress like a Whore Day." They have SO many skanky and uncreative costumes. Ugh. Advice: For the most awesome Halloween costumes, come up with your own unique idea, and buy supplies at the thrift store and the craft/fabric store (Hobby Lobby works great) and PUT IT TOGETHER YOURSELF. Oh-- and give yourself some time to put it together, unlike what I did.

I started writing a song...but it's not piano. It's acoustic+vocals, neither of which I am able to do. I always DID want to learn guitar...

I wonder if I'll ever learn to play my songs perfectly enough to record them. I might annotate it like Tay Zonday did once in his Chocolate Rain video, but I would do it many times. Maybe I'll be the next Tay Zonday! HAHA! Sure....

Last week went by really fast. It might have been that I spent so much time with Caitlin.
It's amazing how friendships and relationships can change. There really isn't anyone I was good friends with before whom I don't talk to currently at IMSA...except maybe one person, who is just extremely awkward in general, but even she will exchange greetings with me.

I don't understand how someone can have 300 friends on facebook. Maybe it's just me? Nah...I hope not. I know I'm not Mr. Popularity, but shit!

I wonder if I'm the only one who cleans out my friends list every few months or so.
Honesty is the best policy.

I want to play Portal now. That game looks awesome.

What's really odd is that 4 couples broke up the day I asked out Caitlin (Thursday, 10-25, I shall not forget!). Like I said, it's amazing how friendships and relationships can change.

Paul's latest fads

The end song from the game, "Portal"
Powerthirst- a spoof that shits on energy drinks everywhere!
Mad TV- Kenny Rogers' 'Jackass'
A really terrible and profane car commercial
Imogen Heap- Hide and Seek

The Imogen Heap song is from the SNL Digital Short entitled, "Letter to my Sister." That would be on the list, but those stiff copyright-whores made youtube people take the video off the site. Thanks to Michelle for turning me on to the first 2 things on the list.

Thursday was death. I worked until I felt like I couldn't work anymore, and then I kept on working. Fucking project, and all of its small little details that I forgot about. I spent like 8 hours of Thursday on that project.

But last night, Michelle and Joey visited! We talked and played taboo and stuff. Michelle goes to Case, so I don't get to see her much. The next time she'll be around won't be until Thanksgiving, so I was really happy to see her. Joey goes to Northwestern, so he's come back to IMSA like 3 times already.

Joey came back today, too, along with Jake, and we played football; me, Jake, his friend, Macy, Joey, Connor, and Schmidty.

I need to stop playing AoE2 and start that last essay for the CommonApp. Then all I have to take care of is Teacher Recs, and I'm done applying to colleges!

Our quad needs a new activity. I think we should all play tennis together when it's warm and swim when it's cooler. I think we all need to get more exercise; I know I definitely do.

Joey came up with an idea for an IMSA band t-shirt. It goes like this:
"At IMSA, the boys are sharp, but girls are flat."

He also came up with another saying about getting girls at IMSA: "The odds are good, but the goods are odd."

10 11 7

So lately, I've been trying to figure out who I am, what my purpose is, what I should do with myself, that sort of thing. Happens to all teenagers. I think that up to age 16, people try to define themselves but are too immature to know how to go about doing it, thus the existence of preps, goths, emos, etc. But I think I'm getting some things straightened out, and it's nice.

It's cold, damnit. Monday, it was 85 degrees. Now, it's 50. And I haven't gone shopping for any winter-type clothes. Ah, piss.

Amazing how your friends can change in a year or two. It really is.

When it gets closer to winter, the air gets drier, and so do I. This is the first day I've used carmex since April.

I played Age of Empires 2 today with Jimmy. It's a VERY involved game, and we made a great team. I love playing video games cooperatively; it's a really good skill to know how to work together, and it feels good when I do it right.

Monday, I went to Tanner's Orchard with the Dopps, Tyler, Colin, and Fishbag. Picking apples was fun; I punted a half rotten pumpkin and slipped on the remains, almost resulting in a fall. I climbed apple trees to give Garrett some apples, we played apple dodge ball (which is exactly what it sounds like), and hay bale tag. There were a bunch of hay bales organized into a maze for the short people to go through. We're big kids, though, so we ran ON TOP of the hay bales and jumped the gaps. Hay bale tag was the shizz. Then I got in a random retired school bus and acted like a pissed-off old bus driver.

I learned that I'm a massive introvert. But that's not as bad as it sounds; sure, I'd rather be able to ignite conversations than just build off them, but hey. An extrovert is someone who creates energy in a conversation; introverts are people who take energy from conversations. It seems to me that introverts build off of what extroverts start. It's hard to explain, but it fits me damn good.

The hypnotist is coming to our school tomorrow! I can't wait! HIS SHOWS ARE SO HILARIOUS! Tomorrow looks like a good day to die.
Laughing.
I'll be sure to post at least part of the show. (I hope I remember.)

Current personal fads:

-Making references to 300
-Imogen Heap
-Team America: World Police theme song
-Get Fuzzy
-Yugioh the Abridged Series

Current one-word interjections yelled out during super smash brothers (and derivations):
1. Streets-- "I'm from the streets, bitch!"
2. Denial!
3. Egypt!--"Denial! It's not just a river in Egypt!"
4. Face!--"Owned in the face!"
5. Owned!
6. Bitch!
And other profanities...Some of which are totally random and make no sense.

Btw, I've got my 5th song in the works. It's in E flat minor. That's right. Six flats. No clue why. It's more of a theme that loops, like something you'd find as a background in a video game.

Off to bed.

P.S. Happy birthday Fishbag! Well, yesterday.

Homecomings

So last Saturday was IMSA's homecoming...I went with Erika. It was a TON of fun...first we went to Chili's to dinner with J.P., Ivy and Monica. J.P. got us all kids' menus and crayons YAY! Then was the dance, which was mostly Erika and I making up random dances and doing them in circles around the dance floor with people looking us, half laughingly and half wondering, "what the HELL are they doing?" Erika and I made up the Shark and the Swimmer, the Fisherman, the Waddle (a.k.a. awkward slow dance) and who knows what the hell else to call the others!

Last Wednesday was the robot arm competition, which went a lot better than I had feared. I had to put most of it together Tuesday night at the workshop; I worked until I was kicked out. And it was only me, because Ashwin and Connor both had other commitments, and it was only then, because the workshop hours are very limited. At that point, it was put together, but there was nothing to move it. But then the three of us met in the DDQ, finished it, and the next day, we placed 3rd or 4th in the competition out of 12. I was surprised. Our ideas were good, but our time was lacking.

So Jimmy and I refer to "ordering Chinese" as "killing ourselves." After all the stress of working in the workshop and not getting nearly enough done, I went up to Jimmy and said "Jimmy...today looks like a good day to die." And so we "killed ourselves." I got beef lo mein. And, holy shit, did I get beef lo mein. You know those white boxes that Chinese food comes in? I swear, the one that I got was 9 inches wide and 9 inches tall, or like the size of a volleyball. That came out to be dinner that night, lunch the next day, and dinner the next day.

Tyler's at a concert right now. He's in Chicago seeing Of Montreal, which is like his favorite band. Jason says they suck, but he listens to screamo-metal-type stuff, so what he says has no meaning whatsoever.

Then there was OHS homecoming, which I went to with Crystil and Sergio. It was pretty fun...I don't think I've danced for that long of a streak ever before. It was kind of odd seeing people who were my little brother's age there. It was even more odd talking to people I hadn't seen in 3 years...But hey.

Tomorrow we go to the orchard!

A new Buffalo Wild Wings opened in Oswego, and I went there today. I tried the hot wings, and OH, shit are they hot. I can't imagine what the blazin' ones taste like. My lips were burning for 15 minutes.

I've had Imogen Heap running through my head for the longest time. I kind of wish she's run out of it for a change, but her music is just so interesting...

That's right. I find certain music 'interesting.'

Here's a quick run-down:
Rock- Love it
Country- I respect it, it's just not what I like
Hip-hop- Okay
Rap- I don't classify it as 'music'
Metal- Has music in it...but if I wanted to listen to someone screaming and crying, my best friend has a baby sister.
Emo- I just don't understand this at all. I swear, people aged 12-15 will join any clique just to fit in somewhere.
Classical- The most boring classical music is the worst music on earth. But the most exciting classical music is the best music on earth.
Oldies- Well, I guess this term refers to all music that isn't recent, and that's a LOT of music. I prefer not to use this term...too broad.

Movies don't entertain me so much. It might be nice to have it in the background as a last resort for when the conversation hits a dry spot, but meh. Horror movies are exceptionally boring. Nothing really happens, except the movie tries to scare you. And sometimes they try so hard to scare you, that it doesn't make any sense at all. Come on. If you want to pull something that scares me, at least make it believable! And the whole try-to-scare-me thing gets old pretty fast. The Ring Two actually made me laugh.

Some movies just aren't meant to take seriously. Like Napoleon Dynamite. It got shitty reviews. But I laughed my ass off! Come on. Do you actually think they were trying to impress you? No, they just wanted you to laugh! And I hope you did. If you didn't, I'll just assume that you felt like you were made fun of by watching it, since you're probably just as stiff and nerdy as Napoleon is.

That's enough of that.

Orchard tomorrow! Apple cider, here I come.

Friday+morning=zombies

No brain today.
Sorry guys.
There's stuff to write, but my memory is fried. Need sleep.

Homecoming #1 tomorrow. I can't wait to see how that goes. The only problem is, not a lot of my friends will be going. I know there'll be plenty of cool people there.
Kinda uber busy this weekend, guys- sorry. Probably going to be no hanging out for me.

uhhhh

Watch Yu-gi-oh the abridged series. It's awesomely hilarious! But don't take my word for it! *reading rainbow blurb*

NOTHInG

Hmm...so what's happened so far....it's so hard to come up with stuff because nothing really ever happens. We had an IMSA carnival last Wednesday, that was pretty fun...Today we went to the Engineering Building at NIU to see some engineering students make machine parts out of big-ass machines that were really expensive. It was cool to see them design something on the computer and then the machine cut it out.

Ad chem is teh gayzorz.

1 year and counting

LIFE REVELATION

The sayings "Life is what you make of it" and "It's the small things that make life worth living" come hand in hand. Let me explain what I mean.

You can walk around in a Patrick Star costume but not find it something worth remembering. You can play Monopoly with friends and decide it's something not worth remembering. You can lie on a hill with two of your closest friends and just look at the stars, and say that it's not remembering.

My advice: Remember all those little moments. It's those moments that make life worth living. Let's face it: There's a tiny, miniscule chance that any of you reading this are going to win the Nobel Peace Prize, or experience one lone moment you will call "the time of your life." The time of our lives is everyday. So enjoy every day. Make it the best you can make it.

If it's the small things that make life worth living, focus on the small things that make you happy. If you want to live a happy life, make your life focus on those small things that make you happy. Life is what you make of it, so make it loaded with the small things. I basically just combined those two clichés!

And that's my life philosophy at the moment. Especially because I'll only be at IMSA for one year. Then a load of breakdowns and good-byes. I don't want it to end.

Even so, I just wasted an entire weekend at home. Not all of it was a complete waste. I went to dinner with our friends from Chicago at the Greek Islands. The saganaki was the best part; that and Tyler making a paper bag mask and putting it on as I tried to feed him honey. Needless to say, it was a mess. And oh yeah- Tyler and Colin came with us. XP

Their friend Ally is a Sophomore here. Laura (one of our friends from Chicago) told me to take care of her...She's already fitting in nicely though. I hope to see her more through the school year.

Macy came home with me today. Well, first my parents dragged us along mailbox shopping and then we got back home. We left about an hour after I hoped to...
It was worth it. Garrett, Tyler, Jason, Colin, and Hallie came with us.

Woo. My window faces the access road, and a couple is making out outside my window. How nice.

Lol- when I typed in nice I accidentally typed "mice." How mice.

So I'm such a dork that I wrote a rap about 1501.
And I finally started writing down my favorite song of mine. It's been in my head since May, but now it's finally being recorded on paper...or at least the computer.
My rap is at home, so you're going to have to wait to see that.

And leave me a comment once in a while. It will make me happy to know that you read any of this.

Life revelation #3

The sayings "Life is what you make of it" and "It's the small things that make life worth living" come hand in hand. Let me explain what I mean.

You can walk around in a Patrick Star costume but not find it something worth remembering. You can play Monopoly with friends and decide it's something not worth remembering. You can lie on a hill with two of your closest friends and just look at the stars, and say that it's not remembering.

My advice: Remember all those little moments. It's those moments that make life worth living. Let's face it: There's a tiny, miniscule chance that any of you reading this are going to win the Nobel Peace Prize, or experience one lone moment you will call "the time of your life." The time of our lives is everyday. So enjoy every day. Make it the best you can make it.

If it's the small things that make life worth living, focus on the small things that make you happy. If you want to live a happy life, make your life focus on those small things that make you happy. Life is what you make of it, so make it loaded with the small things. I basically just combined those two clichés!

And that's my life philosophy at the moment. Especially because I'll only be at IMSA for one year. Then a load of breakdowns and good-byes. I don't want it to end.

Even so, I just wasted an entire weekend at home. Not all of it was a complete waste. I went to dinner with our friends from Chicago at the Greek Islands. The saganaki was the best part; that and Tyler making a paper bag mask and putting it on as I tried to feed him honey. Needless to say, it was a mess. And oh yeah- Tyler and Colin came with us. XP

Their friend Ally is a Sophomore here. Laura (one of our friends from Chicago) told me to take care of her...She's already fitting in nicely though. I hope to see her more through the school year.

Macy came home with me today. Well, first my parents dragged us along mailbox shopping and then we got back home. We left about an hour after I hoped to...
It was worth it. Garrett, Tyler, Jason, Colin, and Hallie came with us.

Woo. My window faces the access road, and a couple is making out outside my window. How nice.

Lol- when I typed in nice I accidentally typed "mice." How mice.

Week 2 of IMSA

Sunday: Tyler, Jason, Colin and I went to Mathiessen State Park . We hiked around on land and through water, climbed rocks and waterfalls, swam, and even slid down some other waterfalls. There was a girl there that had found a baby grackle, and she was carrying the bird around because they had bonded. It was really cool.
Tyler dropped his sunglasses in the water, so I searched for them and found them! Yay me! ...except after that I broke them because I didn't see where they were. Damnit.

It was uber fun. Then we drove to Ottawa and went to a Papa John's pizza place. I drove without a shirt on. My shirt was all wet, so I had to borrow Tyler's to get the pizza. No shirt, no service. (The shoes didn't matter.)
So Colin and I waited for the pizza with Jason and Tyler in the car, and we drove down by the flooded Illinois River and found a picnic table. And when we got there, there was this short old guy cussing at everything as he was walking across the river bridge next to us. It was hilarious. "SHIT SHIT SHITTY SHIT SHIT!!" And he stuck up his middle finger and yelled "FUCK YOU" even though no one was there. We all thought he had tourette's.

So we ate the pizza and then walked along the submerged riverwalk. There were lamps along the riverwalk, and the water came up to a foot high on every one. After that, we headed home along Route 71, getting stuck behind a bunch of slowasses as usual.

Yesterday, our Applied Engineering class partook in a cardboard boat race! Our team consisted of me, Connor, Luke, and Neal. Our boat refused to sink. It was ripped apart and it still didn't sink. It had probably 10 gallons of water in it; Luke was practically swimming but still in the boat. Our boat certainly wasn't the fastest, though. Its sides were basically trapezoids 6 feet long at the top and 3-4 feet long at the bottom, and 14 inches high. Can't forget the 14 inches. We were the U.S.S. Arrgh; a mix of Soviets and pirates. So I decided our flag would be a Jolly Roger except with a hammer and sickle instead of crossbones.

Today we went laser tagging- Me, Zexi, Julian, Ashwin, Anthony, Jackson, Lawrence, Thomas, and Dean. And Macy came with us but decided not to laser tag (Lame). I sucked but got progressively better each time. There were "bases" that each team could "attack" by firing at it. Zexi raped the hell out of the other team's base, I got raped, and Ashwin was healing people even as his codename was "AIDS." That made a LOT of fking sense.
I was Captain Planet because Dean was the Juggernaut, so he could say that he saw me. You wouldn't get it if you didn't see this: http://www.gofish.com/player.gfp?gfid=30-1025329

Then we came back to find one of our sophomores beaten up. Apparently it was a kid that I always knew was fucked up but no one believed me. I like having the ability to sense fucked-up-ness. We'll see how this turns out, and what happens to that shithead.

I actually have school tomorrow! ...I have only wellness, band, and Japanese on A and C days. That doesn't take much. Just one more day to do homework, I guess.

LOL, when I was going to type 'homework' I accidentally typed 'homowork.'

Off to bed!

Week #1

It's been a hell of a week. Scaring Steven, stealing corn, ordering stuffed pizza and having mucho gas, splashing in puddles, diving through floodwater, getting pwned at rummy, finding out who's in my classes, dater anal with Macy, Steven, and Zexi, and experiencing my classes for the first time.

It's the small things.

Now I'm back at home for my first weekend of Senior year. And now that it's the weekend...I'm going to take full advantage of that. In other words, get some sleep!

The story of a little cambodian

Today's highlights:
Ashwin, and
The rain.
But in a fun way this time.

Well the second part is fun.

First, we were under a tornado warning. I was outside at the tennis courts for wellness, and as soon as we were done warming up...a bunch of sirens go off. At the end of the month. And not on Tuesday. Shit! A tornado warning. So we all go inside and sit on the floor in the music wing. I was like DAMMIT I WANT TO SEE IT!!

But then another line of storms rolled in around 6. I was about to walk out of the main building when I noticed that the doors by the gym....were flooded. A bunch of fellow 01ers went running through it. I wandered around until it cleared (maybe 10 minutes later), and then I went outside to find the corner of the road around yare flooded. A bunch of people were playing in it, so I took off my shoes and socks (and put my electronic stuff in my shoes). It didn't last for a minute before that drain was unclogged. So I put my shoes in a tree and went by the 02 slabs, which I know to be always flooded after heavy rain. The water there was deeper than I had ever seen it, like 3" deep. Then I spotted a bunch of people from 04 going to where the yare road was flooded. I went to go tell them that it was deep around other parts of campus, but they came up with a better plan; go sliding in the flooded areas by 04. It was a kickass idea. It was Asya, Phoebe, me, Bryan, Chris, and April-Hope all sliding through the water. It rocked.

I came back, got checked (all soaked and covered in grass), took a shower, and now I'm here doing this. And it's still storming. And there's gnarly lightning outside my window.

w00t.

I did an assload of Ad Chem today, but I only know it's going to escalate to a shitload, or maybe even a fuckload each day, eventually. WHOA. Sorry, there was some nasty lightning. Whew!

So um, Ashwin's back. I saw him for the first time this year. He's officially back, guys. But he's not going to live in our quad. That's fair, because I don't want to see Bryan kicked out, or rejected in any way for that matter. I hope everything goes okay. And I hope that the staff thinks that we're assholes enough to want to get rid of Bryan. I would hate to see him go, anyways. It's nice having him hanging with us.

I caught Ashwin up on all the stuff that's gone on, stealing corn, annoying Steven's quad, meeting Sophomores and what-not. I hope that the staff gives him the opportunities that he once had, the ones he deserves.

F%@king staff. Not letting us in the main door. Not letting us out the main door. Screwing over Ashwin. As of last year, the glory was gone. As of now, my opinion of IMSA is negative. This place just keeps getting more and more on my nerves. But the people here just keep getting more and more awesome.

I need to bring swim trunks so I can go swimming. And I need to bring back my laundry card...durrrr

Maybe it won't rain tomorrow! Right now, there's a flash flood warning, a flood warning, a flash flood watch, and a flash flood statement. What the shit?

On to homework

School. For real this time.

Today is the first full day of school. And it's a B day. So for my schedule, that means it's an ACTUAL SCHOOL DAY. A and C days consist of band, Japanese, and wellness. So that's just about NO work or thinking whatsoever 2 days a week. I still have to wake up at 7:30 though. Bah.

I'm about to eat lunch right now. I had 4 classes this morning: Data Analysis, Band, Japanese, and ...ah, shit, what was the other one......oh yeah, Macro. That wasn't actually a class b/c the teacher never showed up. So I just hung out with Rob in the Mac lab.

I still have Ad Chem and Portraits of Creativity left. I wonder what cool juniors and seniors are going to be in Ad Chem...

Let's find out!

Rain, rain, fucking GO AWAY!

It rained all weekend. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, too. It's not raining now. FOR ONCE.

Yesterday I taught Jimmy and Macy how to play rummy and subsequently got my ass kicked at it...Macy won by almost 300 points...I gave them the skills...and they apparently already had plenty of luck.

And Jimmy, Macy and Steven took some corn from the cornfield outside our window. They boiled it, and tried some. And subsequently we realized that so much corn is grown for many purposes OTHER than human consumption. My digestive organs were not happy with me for the rest of the night. I feel fine now, though. LOL

I had wellness yesterday. The Tennis & Badminton teacher seems really nice and enthusiastic, even if the kids aren't. I had band today, and the new band teacher is SO QUIET. We had to ask her to speak up twice. Hopefully she'll get louder once the band starts making the loud sound it makes, and she adjusts to it.

And Japanese III seems the same as I and II. Except now I have to wake up at 7:30 for it.

Quotes:

When we were playing rummy, Zexi asks Macy, "How many 4's do you have?" because he wanted to discard a 4, but not if Macy could have gained from it. Macy responds, "This isn't go-fish, bitch!"

Sophomore: Do we have study hours?
Me: Hell if I know AHAHAH

Martin: Why's my hand so dirty
Steven: Because you touch yourself at night.

Sophomores met: 8
Girls: 7
Guys: 1

...
And I wanted to go wandering around outside today, but it was raining so much it's insane! So today I haven't done much of anything!
GAY
The one day I get to myself at IMSA, it rains big-time. WTF

Oh well. I met a lot of people yesterday. I look forward to spending another school year with these people.
But the stress...that's the only thing i REALLY passionately hate about this place. Even Sodexho doesn't suck as bad.

Route collection

I've been working on a website all about the highways in Illinois. You can learn about Illinois roads, and you can see the pictures I have collected from all over the state.

The site is here: www.angelfire.com/ill2/paulsroutes/index.html

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF CHANNEL PAUL NEWS FOR THE 07-08 SCHOOL YEAR

That's right! Here is where I'll be posting my weblog (whoa, I spelled out the whole darn thing) for Senior year! You can read about ALL THE ACTION...

ALL THE EXCITEMENT...

ALL THE...ahahaha...I'm going back to school. There won't BE any action or excitement or...whatever else I was going to say.

BUT STILL. THIS BLOG IS YOUR NEWS SOURCE FOR ALL THE........STUFF THAT GOES ON IN THE WORLD OF PAUL...ness...

So check back here for updates on what happens in my life, if you care about that. Haven't gotten the chance to ask me "what's up?" Whatever's up is up on this web site.

Now I'm off to laugh as I chase a fly off my screen with the mouse cursor. Stupid flies.

ON THE NEXT EPISODE OF CHANNEL PAUL NEWS...PAUL MOVES INTO SCHOOL FOR SENIOR YEAR! CHECK YOUR LOCAL LISTINGS...or ..something...it's tomorrow...