Getting Lost in HD

Today, I found what was Lost. Yesterday, our new pet rat escaped. Try as we might, we couldn't find it. I think it was quite happy with its newfound life of freedom. That, and we had only had it for two days, so it is still scared of people. I thought it would never be seen again, at least alive.

This morning, I awoke to the sound of my mom calling for help. No, she wasn't hurt. She needed help catching the rat. She had quietly sat in our office, and the rat poked its head out from behind a filing cabinet. I thought now that we knew where it was, it would be easy to catch. I trapped it behind the filing cabinet. It had no where to go but into our waiting hands. I used a board to gently coax it out into the open. It kept managing to escape back to its hideout behind the filing cabinet.

I finally had it in my hand, but it somehow managed to wiggle its way out. It then ran behind our computer. I moved the desk a little bit. This time, I really had it trapped. I could see it, there was nowhere for it to go. I stared it down, this was not funny anymore. After several failed attempts at grabbing it, it made a run for it. I was under the desk, lying on the floor. It was able to run and wedge itself under my belly. I was now in quite the predicament. Move, and it might run away, either that, or get crushed by my large belly. Somehow, the pesky pet was able to escape my grasp and make a break for freedom. I had no clue where it was.

After searching for a while, and recruiting my sister to help, we had it enclosed in a closet. Even then, this rat wasn't going down without a fight. I finally was able to use a box and strategically pin it in a corner. Yes, Janitor the rat had been caught. But I must admit, I was very impressed with the speed, skill, and smartness of this little rodent. It eluded us for a day, and even when we found it, it out ran three people for half an hour. I mean, I worked up a sweat trying to catch her.

Not only had we found/captured our pet that was lost, tonight was the season premiere of season four of my favorite show, Lost. How ironic. Let me tell you, it was amazing to finally get to watch Lost on our new TV. As I like to say, everything is better in HD.

Delayed Day

Today my school had a two hour delay. The roads were dangerous due to snow again. I woke up, and found out I didn't have classes until 10:00am, so I went back to sleep. This may have not been the best idea. I didn't set an alarm, so I over slept. I didn't get woken up until 9:00am, around the time I would have liked to have left. I hurriedly got ready. Thankfully, I got to the campus just in time for my class. And in this class, I finally had the finally that was supposed to be on Monday.

I was sitting outside the class, looking over my notes, when the teacher went by. She chuckled and said something about cramming for the test. I responded, "well I was ready on Monday." I hope she didn't hear me, but I don't think she did. The final went fine. Oh and by the way, that paper I whined about last night, she decided to extend the deadline to next Monday. I knew this was going to happen, but the one time you plan on it, it won't happen. At least it is done.

My little sister has really been enjoying her pet rat. Maybe a little too much. It still isn't used to people, but it crawled around on my sister's shoulder for a while. She decided it was time to let the rat free on the ground, this decision was made a bit prematurely. The rat ran behind some bookshelves in our office, and is nowhere to be found. I really hope for her sake, and the rats, that we can find it soon.

Brief side note: this is my 200th post.

Extra Explanation Encouraged

Today, was another snow day. Even though there was twice as much snow on the ground, the college was on regular time today. Actually, by the time I got to Olympia, there was hardly a trace of snow on the ground. Classes were okay today, I took my second Spanish quiz. Ever since I got home, I have had to work on a big project due tomorrow. It is supposed to be about an autobiography of Fred Thompson, but I couldn't find one so I had to improvise.

Speaking of which, I hate it when projects are not explained hardly at all, and the deadline just sneaks up on. Case in point, this project. Last class, a week ago tomorrow, our teacher said to not forget our presidential bios were due. I had basically forgotten about this project. Oh, and also don't forget we have an essay midterm next class. And one last thing, you should be through chapter 6 in your textbook.

Basically, I had done nothing towards any of these major things. I read all weekend, and studied hard for the midterm. Then it snowed, and class was cancelled that day. So now, I think we are doing that tomorrow. But our reports were due tomorrow, but since we didn't have class, are they still due? Speaking of which, what are we supposed to do on these papers. The syllabus contains exactly one sentence about this report basically saying you have to do one. Okay, but what exactly is it supposed to include, how long, formatting, etc? End rant, I feel better now. I think I am a little low on sleep and high on things to do. Wait, have a high amount of things to do.

I really don't like when things are so vague. Maybe it is intentional. Some people work better with looser guidelines. I on the other hand, really like stricter ones. It lets me know what is expected, and what to do. I also sort of put this project off because I didn't know what to do, this wasn't a very good idea. It means I have to throw something together, and stay up late tonight doing so. Overall though, I am pretty happy with what I have done, I just hope it is what the teacher wanted.

sNOw Day Off

Today was an interesting day. All weekend, I had been furiously studying to prepare for a midterm in one of my classes. I stayed up late last night studying, and didn't get a very good nights sleep. I woke up to around an inch of snow on the ground. Not unusual this time of year, but it was so cold, the roads were like a sheet of ice. Nearly all schools around were late state or cancelled, but not surprisingly the college wasn't.

My father decided to drive me and my sister to school, and with my youngest sister having school cancelled, she decided to tag along too. Nearly to the school, I got a call (thanks Eric) that school was cancelled. Usually this is good news, but not when I was nearly to school and was ready for my midterm. I also had a question on a large project due on Wednesday, so I won't have a chance to ask about it.

Not all was in vain though. My dad purchased some bathroom remodeling supplies in Olympia. We went to a nice breakfast. We also added another member to our clan. It took some convincing, but my youngest sister and I finally got our parents to let us get a pet rat. My sister is really excited as it is her first pet. I believe it is around the 4th pet rat in the family. Its predecessors include the famous Mattie, Sam, Pip and Squeak. Not to mention a few other rodents such as the suicidal Cutie, and that one Guinea pig we had. I believe my sister named her Janitor, Jan for short. She decided on this name because it likes to clean itself.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot accomplished today. I was so tired and even though I didn't have classes, I didn't get any extra sleep. With the new pet, lack of sleep, and other things to do, I didn't get nearly as much homework done as I needed. I guess I shall have another marathon homework session tomorrow. This is starting to be my life. One homework marathon after another, and let me tell you, these are not any fun.

Pet Possibilities

Today I had a fun time looking around in a pet store. It made me and my little sister want to finally get another pet rat. Growing up, I had several rodent pets, but our family hasn't had one for quite awhile. I also found all the variety of fish quite amazing. All the colors, shapes, and swimming patterns. My father bought 8 fish for his class. For some reason they only charged him for 6 fish. Maybe it was because they knew by the time he added them to his classroom fish tank, 2 would not have survived. Just don't tell any of the children in his class.

Sufficiently Successful Saturday

I hope it snows tonight, the man says it will. But then again, he can't always be trusted. Today was a fairly busy day. I tried to follow a schedule, and I would say I did an okay job. I went running on the permafrost, in freezing temperatures, with the occasional snowflake falling. I fulfilled both my janitorial duties.

At one job, I vacuumed the school barefoot. My shoes had been bothering me, so I took them off. This worked out okay, I just had to make sure I vacuumed before I stepped. I didn't want to stab my foot with any staples, push-pins, rocks, or any other random sharp objects occasionally found on dirty elementary school carpets.

I also went on a walk with my dog and sister. I applied for another scholarship today. The one area I wish I did more on was my assigned reading homework. I read around 70 pages, not bad, but still have 70 pages to go. I guess there is always tomorrow, or after I publish this.

Frieday

I am glad today was Friday. No, not because it finally means it is the weekend, or there is a cool TV show on. The reason I am glad it is Friday is because that means I still have two days before class on Monday. Because on Monday, I have a midterm in my American Government class.

I also was unaware of how far we were supposed to be in the textbook, so I need to catch up. These marathon textbook readings are no fun. After a while, ones brain and eyes start to hurt. Thankfully, I still have a couple days to read the 6 chapters, and nearly 200 pages in order to be caught up. Then I can start to worry about the essay midterm.

Oh, and did I mention the things I need to do in my other two classes, or in order to graduate, or to enter in scholarships? The days are too short, hours too few, and life too busy.

Shoulder Speeder

Today a first happened to me while I was driving. No, I didn't get in a accident, get a ticket, or run someone over. I was driving home from college, in the right lane of a two lane highway. I heard a car accelerating quickly behind me, I thought it was maybe a motorcycle. Before I could even look in my mirrors and see what it was, I was getting passed in the shoulder. Yes, a car went around me while I was in the right lane on my right. I guess they decided to make a two-lane highway into three lanes. I am not quite sure why they did this. It wasn't like I was going slow or anything. They passed me like I was standing still. Thankfully for them, I drive in my lane and don't swerve into the shoulder. It was quite stupid of them, not to mention dangerous.

Presidential Problems

Today in my Polysci class, we talked about the tension between civil liberty and national security. Issues such as the Patriot Act, and Japanese internment camps of World War II were brought up. I tend to think national security is more important. The Bush administration/Patriot Act get a lot of flack, but they must be doing something right if we haven't had another terrorist attack on US soil after 9/11. I am willing to give up some civil liberty if in turn I can feel/be safer, especially in a time of war. Besides, I have nothing to hide.

Today in class, I also found out I have an essay midterm next class, and a paper due the class after that. This is all a bit overwhelming, as these two things haven't been talked about much. The paper is about Fred Thompson, the person I have to 'become' in the class. Unfortunately, he dropped out of the race yesterday. The teacher said I still can/have to be him in our class debates, and election stuff. It is kind of hard to imagine myself being Fred Thompson, but it will have to happen.

Running and Reinterpreting

Today I was all ready for my first Spanish test in my new class. I studied for several days leading up to it, had done all the homework, and felt a fairly good mastery over the subjects covered. I even had a three hour break before class to study. So, I was surprised when I got to my class and the teacher said we weren't going to take the test today.

I was a little bit disappointed, but much more relieved. The only problem, we were taking the test. You see, my Spanish teacher has a tendency to ramble off long speeches only in Spanish. Of course, this is obviously acceptable in a Spanish class. For some reason, I had misinterpreted her Spanish. She said we were going to take the test later on in the class, I thought she said not at all. I was pretty surprised when she said we would be starting the test in 5 minutes. Thankfully, I had already studied hard, and didn't need to use the class period before the test to cram. After taking the test, I actually feel like I probably did okay. That is the way I usually after these tests.

I also went running today. I believe it has been a week straight now, and at least 20 out of the past 25 days. I am really enjoying it.

Much Likable Kind of Day

Today, the remains of the 7ft. snowman finally disappeared. The snowman had lasted almost two weeks. With today being MLK day, I didn't have school. However, I had a bunch of school related things to accomplish, and I made a pretty good stab at them. I also found the time and energy to go running. I broke my 'record', and went nearly 8 miles straight. I have the matching pair of blisters on my feet to prove it.

iFound it

Today, I finally found it. At the start of the school year, I let my brother borrow/gave him my iPod. After I didn't have it anymore, I started to miss it. Then my brother came home for the Christmas break, and I got to use the iPod. Several days before my brother was to return to college, the iPod vanished.

We looked everywhere for it. It couldn't be found. My brother left without it. I looked high and low for it. I even offered a $5 reward to anyone who could find it. I spent hours looking for it.

Then, my sister found my brother's old iPod. He thought it didn't work, and that is why I let him borrow mine. I charged the battery, and it worked just fine. I have used it a few times the past couple days, and spent less time looking for the lost iPod. Then, today I finally found it after three weeks. The iPod had been set in a holder on our treadmill. I guess it just goes to show how much the treadmill has been used lately.

Productive Day

Today was a productive day. It seems I am having these sort of days more and more, I guess I am forced to with how much junk I have to do. I applied to my second college, this time the application only took around an hour. My father filled out the FAFSA for me, thank you dad.

I also finished all my weekend janitorial responsibilities. I made a good stab at my Spanish homework. I even found time to go running. Overall, a productive day. Hopefully I will actually be able to relax and "take a day off" on MLK day.

Emotional Roller Coaster

Today was a very strange day, filled with emotional highs and lows. I was happy to finally be able to sleep in, I had been pushing the boundary sleep wise. My young cousins were also coming up from Oregon, and I was happy to see them. It was fun going to coffee and a store with them. While they were taking a nap, I went jogging. This almost never fails to make me feel alive and in good spirits. But soon after things started not being so fun.

My cousin got sick, never any fun for any party involved. I felt so sorry for her. This made our dinner plans for my grandpa's birthday party on hold. Things were never quite as relaxed when you wondered with every noise or movement if someone was going to throw up again. Dinner tasted good, almost too good. After dinner, it was sad when my cousins had to rush to where they are staying for the night, and decide they are leaving early tomorrow.

I then I had to focus my attention on a test I had to take online for one of my classes. As this was my first time doing such a thing, I was nervous and didn't know what to expect. I took the test, and for a variety of reasons, didn't do nearly as well as I had hoped. This put me in a really bad mood, and kind of capped off a rather strange, emotional roller coaster of a day.

Enjoyable Day

Today was a rather busy day. With not having class until 1:15pm, I played pickleball. Overall, I had a really great pickleball day, and was on the top of my game. There were several close games I was apart of, all of which my team won. Then I went home, got ready for school and ate lunch.

My Spanish class was okay today. I found out I got a perfect score on my first Spanish vocab quiz, this was a little shocking. That was the main highlight though, after that stuff got rather confusing. We were learning about participles, direct object nouns, direct object pronouns and such. This stuff can be confusing in English, which is only multiplied when learned in another language.

After Spanish, I came home and went jogging. Then I went to the store and bought supplies for making taco salad. I returned home, cooked dinner, and then ate it. I also plan to watch a movie tonight. Overall, it was a busy day, but a very enjoyable one.

A.A. Annoyance

My upcoming graduation was the reason for yesterday's plight. The joy of finally completing the tedious UW application was lost when I stumbled across a mistake in my planning. For some reason, I thought I was all set to graduate from high school with my AA after next quarter. I thought I only needed 11 more credits.

I am not quite sure why I thought this, I was 10 credits off. That means I have twice the work to do. And with 12 credits being considered a "full load" and being used to the customary 15, I was devastated to think of taking 21 credits. Especially because it is my last quarter of high school and I wanted to play soccer my senior year. I hoped it would be more of a coast to the finish line, instead of an all out sprint. I still hope to graduate with my AA degree, it is just going to take a lot more work than I hoped.

Aggravating Afterthought

Life can come at you so fast sometimes. One moment you are on top of the world, and the very next moment crushed by it. Sadly, this is how the past couple hours of the life of Danny have been.

I had just finished my University of Washington application after countless hours, three essay drafts, and a span of two months slowly chipping away at it. Today was the final deadline, I already missed the first "priority" deadline on accident. But, I finally finished and was in a state of complete euphoria, I thought nothing could bring me down. Not even the couple hours of homework I still had to do and it was getting late.

I was the happiest I have been for days, or even weeks. After only maybe half an hour in this state, I stumbled across something while thinking about graduation. And this did end my happiness, quickly. I would rather not talk about it right now, it is still to fresh and painful, not to mention complicated. Maybe later.

Thousandaire

Today I quite possibly could have made *thousands* of dollars. Yes, I entered into several scholarships, and wrapped up one to enter tomorrow. I actually don't think I stand any chance of winning most scholarships I have/will enter, but it is cool to think that I might. I mean just think, one of the scholarships took me a little over an hour to complete, if I win the 1000 dollars, I will have made quite literally a thousand dollars an hour. Not bad, not bad at all.

Rounding Up the Rollups

Today I ate at Bagel Brothers, one of my favorite Olympia eateries. While I was eating, I noticed a few young kids also eating. Well, they were more of playing with their food. They had some of those foot-long fruit rollup things. They were carrying them around precariously close to the floor, and whipping them on the tables and chairs. I felt like rounding up their fruit rollups, and throwing them away. They were putting them on dirty surfaces, and were still going to eat them. No wonder little kids get sick so much, I hope I wasn't that germ naive when I was a young lad. Although, one time I did take a bite out of a cinnamon roll my dog brought home on garbage day, but that is another story.

Aches and Pains

Today, was a sad day. As is my new tradition before a Seahawk playoff game, I went for a run. Today was a lot more of a sprint, as opposed to a jog. Unfortunately, the Seahawks lost in a blow out. It wasn't even close for much of the game. What was close, were the delicious snacks for the game, too close. The more nervous I was about the game, the more I ate. This was not what I had planned to do. So now not only am I disappointed about the game, I also have a bit of a stomach ache.

Running Revelation

Today was a rather productive day of sorts. I got a few requirements out of the way for a scholarship I need to submit by Tuesday, a deadline which is quickly approaching. I also found time to jog around 5 miles, and walk around 3.

During this process of jogging, I stumbled, not literally, into quite a revelation about life. You see, I walked to the trail I was running at, so when I was done running, I would have to walk home. This was very demoralizing. If I ran until I could run no more, I would still have to muster up the energy to walk the near mile home. Also, I didn't have any water with me, I would also have to wait to rehydrate myself. And if that wasn't bad enough, there were various forms of water all around. Snow left on the ground, huge puddles of water, but nothing to quench my thirst. I seriously contemplated laying down in a huge puddle, but didn't want to walk home completely drenched.

It was in this dehydrated and exhausted state, somewhere on my way home after the tempting puddle, that I realized something. Without motivation, incentives, or a purpose, it is hard to accomplish anything. Knowing I was no where closer to water or home when I finished running, it was hard to run at all. In general, the same can be said for people. They need to strive for something, have a bigger purpose to live for. Whatever it is, people need it, and without it, it can be hard to feel like accomplishing anything.

Pressing Pressure

For part of today, I was in a bit of a foul mood. I think it may have to do with the mounting stress from: approaching deadlines for scholarship and college applications, all the random and time consuming projects I need to complete in order to graduate, challenge of coordinating graduating from high school and college at the same time, and taking challenging college classes.

I just feel so much pressure weighing me down, consuming my life, eating away at me. I have all these things I need to do, and even when I am not working on these things, I feel like I should be and therefore I am never completely relaxed. And the decisions I have to make are extremely difficult, potentially life changing. Where do I want to go to college? How will I afford it? What do I want to major in? What do I want to do for the rest of my life? These are not easy questions to answer, especially when you are under the gun in trying to answer them.

So, back to being in a foul mood. With all these pressures dragging me down, I was unnecessarily rude with my family. I just need to try and relax, but more importantly, not take out my frustration on others. It pains me to see how my actions caused others to react, and how I was the reason for the animosity. I need to not bottle up my frustrations, or take out my frustrations on a ketchup bottle. I was not angry, just feeling majorly over whelmed, and being short on food and sleep didn't help. I am sorry to the family members I was a pain to, and I can and will do better.

Lost Locke Leader

Today, I was part of a group of three people that had to lead an hour long discussion in my Political Science class. Now, it was not my choice to be in this group. I was basically volun-told by the professor to be in the presenters group. I am not sure how the professor picked me out of the entire class to be with the other two who volunteered to present. But I guess I had to present eventually, so I might as well get it over with. The part I was less happy about was the fact that after class, the two other people in my group disappeared. This meant we had to present next class with no plan, or at least no group plan.

The topic was Two Treatises of Government written by John Locke in the 1600's. In case you were wondering, John Locke of Lost was named after this guy. I thought this would be interesting to share with the class, so I prepared a quite extensive and interesting speech about how the two were similar. The only problem, when I asked how many people had heard of or watched Lost, only three hands went up, and that is out of almost 30 classmates! I was shocked, disappointed, and at a loss of words. Quite literally, I had a whole speech to give about how this piece was related to Lost, but I quickly had to scrap that. Thankfully, my teacher was one out of the three hands that were raised. At least she knew what I was trying to talk about.

Overall, the presentation was okay. I guess I learned a few good lessons. One, the United States Constitution was formed after the revolutionary ideas of John Locke. Two, groups need to work together. And three, if you plan a speech around Lost, your audience may be lost.

Snow Day of Amazingness

Today, I finally got the snow event I have been waiting for. The "man" was predicting snow for our area last night, the past few times he had let me down, so I wasn't expecting much from him. Yet this time, it snowed. And snow it did, I would say we had almost 4 inches.

The only bad news, my school is in Olympia 30 miles away, and they didn't have nearly the same amount of snow. This meant that my school was on as normal in Olympia even though all the schools in Shelton were closed. The snow was too heavy and amazing for me to make it to my 9:00am class. Instead, I stayed home and played in the snow all morning.

My sisters and I built a 7 foot tall snowman. It all started with me rolling as big a snowball as I could. It took all of us to roll it up my driveway and into the front yard. This is by far the biggest snowman I have ever built. Unfortunately, it has a striking resemblance to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and I fear it may eventually fall over. I also went sledding for a while. Overall, I would say today was a near perfect snow day, except for missing a morning class but still having to go to school for an afternoon class.

Scholarship Squandering

Today, I finally started the inevitable process, I started filling out some scholarship and college applications. I fear I may have started the process a tad too late, as it will be down to the wire to get all the necessary paperwork mailed in time. Hopefully, I didn't wait too long. I mean, thousands of dollars are on the line, quite literally.

Costco Conversation

Today I ate at Costco. While I was sitting there eating, I heard a man say something brilliant. He said, "stupidity has nothing to do with age, there are stupid young people, and there are stupid old people." I am not quite sure why he said this, but I thought it was funny, yet true. A lot of times, it seems people lump one age, gender, race, or any other group of people into one stereotype. Yet, these stereotypes are almost always wrong, and definitely not true about everyone in that group. Little good can come from lumping people into a group, especially if it has to do with stupidity. I just hope their conversation didn't arise from them seeing me.

A S.T.E.W. Sort of Day

Today was a sad, tiring, exhilarating, and rather weird day, in that order. My brother had to return to school today. It is always sad when he leaves. I wasn't going to let the sadness bring me down, I went running. I believe it to be the furthest I have ever run nonstop, over 6 miles. It was tiring, yet well worth it. The Seahawks won an exhilarating game, even more amazing seen in HD. As for the weird part, it was Saturday relived. Yesterday felt like Saturday not having school, so today felt like it should be Sunday, but it wasn't. Overall, today was an eventful day, maybe even a groundbreaking sort of day.

Bonus Saturday

Today was a rather bizarre day. The way I have scheduled my classes for this quarter, I don't have any classes on Friday. Today was the first of these Fridays without class. If felt weird to sleep in on a Friday, weird but very nice. All day has felt like a Saturday, tomorrow is like a bonus Saturday. I think I shall get used to this bonus Saturday idea very quickly.

Pizza Perfection

Today, I continued a new habit. No, I'm not talking about jogging, although I did do that. I cooked. Yesterday, I made some ham and cheesy scrambled eggs for my siblings and I. Today, I wanted to cook something else, something bigger and better. Although, yesterday's eggs were very good.

So today, I decided to cook dinner for the whole family, a pizza dinner. My father pitched in, and we whipped out some really good pizzas. There was one pizza that was all my own work of art. I made the dough, rolled it out, and layered the sauce, cheese, pepperonis, and more cheese to absolute perfection. The pizza tasted so good. Maybe it was because I had poured my blood, sweat, and tears in to creating it.

Old School New Habit

Today, my break was finally over, and I had to return to school. It actually wasn't that bad, and was a little bit nice to get back to "normal". I even woke up early enough to go jogging, maybe it is a new habit in the new year. I hope so.

Found Lost

Over the Christmas break, my family got addicted to the phenomenon that is Lost. In just under two weeks, we were able to finish the first two seasons. We stayed up late almost every night watching Lost, our record was 6 episodes in one day. Last night/early this morning, we finished season two.

But now, comes the real problem. Season four starts in a couple weeks on TV. So, we have to watch one more season to be caught up. School is also starting, so I don't think we can stay up so late watching season three. But the main problem, is how we will get the episodes. At Hollywood video store, for $10 a month, we can rent an unlimited amount of movies that aren't "hot", basically ones that aren't new releases. The dilemma, season three of lost is "hot". So, we can either wait two weeks for it to no longer be hot, and have to cram before season 4 starts on TV, or pay money to rent them. Another issue would arise. The complete season 3 DVD boxed set can be purchased for a little over $30 dollars, the price it would cost to rent each of the 6 disks individually. While I am not sure which of these options is the best, I am definitely hooked to this amazing show.