I love summer...

...mostly. My legs hurt. A lot. and by a lot I mean just about as close to 2nd degree burns you can get from the sun. I even used sunscreen.

Anyway, they got like that because I was just on a Boy Scout trip on the New River. I was in a canoe with Adam the first day, and a kayak the second. I really like these trips, because you can carry as much as you want, really, but moreso this trip: we were camping at a real campsite (not like the island from last year), and we drove the cars with all our gear over to it. So really we didn't have to worry about swamping because most people were only carrying snacks and water and sunscreen. It was essentially two perfect days for canoeing, about 75 degrees (F), dry and breezy. so basically it was the perfect trip. I only wish it was longer. All the canoing zen masters of the troop (except for Phil Pickett whose grandmother died the day before) were on the trip, so it was really fun. Not the best trip ever, because the campsite was surrounded by the tracks of a train that went by every fifteen minutes all through the night, but still pretty awesome. Never having been to the campsite (which had almost no trees), i packed my hammock instead of a tent. This was also fairly annoying. But in general, a really good trip.

other than that trip, I haven't really done anything this summer. ooo, forgot: My cell phone was almost killed in the wash yesterday. it still turns on, but only when it's plugged in to the charger. I think this means there's a water-induced short somewhere in the power, because it hasn't dried out yet. At least I hope so, because a cell phone you can't use except in your room is very nearly pointless.

It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
and I feel fine.

SCHOOOOL'S OUT/ FOR SUMMER!

Wow. It's been a really long time since I've posted, hasn't it? like 2 months. The last three weeks of it were because my computer was dead, or in the shop, or something like that. Well, I'm sort of glad for that anyway, because i became re-obsessed with photography over this break from the computer. I uploaded the best pictures i've ever taken to my flickr. you can see it by clicking on the image above.

So what else has happened since my last post? Well, for starters, it's SUMMER :) !!!! so far, though i've realized that the fact that i only had to take two exams at the end of school made me not sure when to be really excited, and this caused me to be less excited overall. So that's not fun. but also, i think i got some good grades: B in drafting (that's a 4.0), A in Latin, A in history, A-B in Algebra (depends on my exam grade), A in Biology, A-B in Enlish, and A in gym. so yeah, that's all that's going on that's interesting in my life right now...

Harold Land/With a wave of his hand/said goodbye to all that

this doesn't actually happen in real life, does it?

I watched with glee

While your kings and queens

Fought for ten decades

For the gods they made

I shouted out,

Who killed the kennedys?

When after all

It was you and me

I've been in shock the past two days. Stuff just doesn't happen here. It doesn't happen anywhere, really, does it? You mean the stuff on television happens to real people? like, people with lives and jobs and families? <-- my thought process, courtesy of my brain. So unless you don't have a tv or a computer, which wouldn't make sense, since you're reading this, you probably know what happened here on monday. This disturbed korean senior killed 32 people +himself. so this makes the second murder here in one year. Not to mention the largest single mass murder in U.S. history. There have been a total of "0" murders here ever. It's not a real place anymore. it's one of those nice, small towns that produce serial killers that you see on "america's most wanted." This is not cool. not fun. not comfortable. It's RIGHT HERE. Everything's shattered in our brains. my parents knew the german teacher.

Powered by Bleezer

Whoops...

Can't you see I'm trying?
I don't even like it. I just lied to
Get to your apartment, now I'm staying
Here just for a while
I can't think 'cause I'm just way too tired

Is this it?
Is this it?
Is this... it?

i freaking love the strokes.

Anyway, i made a comment yesterday that i regret extremely, but that was actually really sarcastic and not meant to offend anyone. Mr. Reinhardt asked the class why the Christians felt, during the crusades, that they needed to control Jerusalem. Everyone answered. He then asked why the Muslims did. No one answered. So to break the overwhelming silence and mock America's view of Muslims, I said, my voice oozing sarcasm (or so i thought), "because Muslims suck." Of course, Mr. Reinhardt and everyone else in the room understood that i was not serious. however, the administrator who just happened to be giving Mr. Reinhardt his teacher evaluation that day did not realize this. I got called to the office today. I'm not saying that I am not at fault, only that I really did not think i was saying anything offensive at the time. Well, that's not completely true. I knew, of course, that "Muslims suck" would be a terrible thing to say if one was in fact of that conviction. I just didn't think that anyone would believe that I actually thought that it was true.

day before easter

today we were supposed to go on a bike trip on the New River Trail with the scouts, but it didn't work out because.... drum roll please... it was snowing! yeah. halfway through April, it's snowing. so that was disappointing. but now i get to stay home and do nothing, which is good! i think...

tomorrow's easter! this is the first year we haven't dyed eggs. i'm not sure if that's symbolic of something or just because we didn't feel like it. the dye didn't smell good, and your hands weren't the same for a week. I like easter, because it's not about the presents and is therefore less commercialized than christmas. holidays should be about what they represent, not about how much money the CEOs make during them.

can't you see i'm trying
i don't even like it
i'd just like to get to your apartment
now i'm staying
there just for a while
i can't think 'cause
i'm just way too tired.
<--the strokes (is this it>

first day of spring break!

so, yeah. today was our early release for the first day of high-school break. it was really fun, at least at first. above is a picture of jessica about to fall on leah's face out of a big tree on the duck pond.

So it was fun. until we went to squires. Leah was drawing on my shoes, with her gigantic bag of sharpees, when a policeman walks over and begins to tell us about how graffiti destroys the university. He said they were cracking down on taggers and that he would need all of our info. we had done nothing remotely destructive to property today, or any other day for that matter. so yeah, after that, we were free to leave. but it still freaked me out that because we "fit a profile," we were accountable for our age-group's sins. he came up to us and his first words were "are you all the kind of kids who ride skateboards and tag buildings?" like they went hand in hand. they don't. and we aren't.

"listen, son
said the man with a gun
there's room for you inside

yet again, it's been a while since my last post. i think i'm finally getting rid of my computer habit. whether that's good or bad, i don't know. I did get a new camera because my old one, which i had for 2 1/2 years, broke. it's april fools day, but i didn't come up with any stupid pranks to play on people, mainly because it's a sunday, and therefore i won't see anyone today. I don't know why i felt like posting today, because i really don't have much to say.

Well, my new camera is very cool. it has 6x optical zoom, 24x digital, which is like 3 times better than my last one. it has the best macro function EVER, and you can set the focal distance, aperture, shutter speed, iso, and anything else you could possibly want. it takes VGA quality video, but on my 512 mb card it can only take 4.5 mins. anyway, i love it soo much, and will be frequently posting new photos on flickr, if not here.

"Who says a funk band can't play rock?" --Funkadelic

ummm...
yeah... I don't have any sort of thing I really wanted to post... just felt like letting everyone know i'm not dead. I watched "Wild Hogs" yesterday. the preview was pretty accurate as far as the level of humor goes. But considering the idiotic premise and puerile sense of humor, it really wasn't so bad. The feeling seemed to really fit the topic. I rank it as the best terrible movie i've seen recently.

busy week

hey. sorry it's been a while since i posted. I have put a semi-ban on the internet for myself. It's been a fairly eventful week. First, last weekend, my computer basically broke down and wouldn't conect to the internet. so i had to back up everything, reinstall windows, and restore all my files. This weekend, we took down my loft bed because i was getting really sick of having to climb down every time i was thirsty. This ended up making my room look a lot better, in my opinion. Finally, my computer's monitor started glazing over frequently. I think there's a bad connection because closing and reopening it makes a difference. I set it up so that it's connected to an old monitor that i have laying around, and it stopped, so it's not a problem with the graphics card.

Cold Weather

It's been very cold here the past few weeks. This is a shot of a branch outside our house. I realized after taking it that you can't tell that it was attached to the tree, and it sort of looks like I was holding it there. I wasn't, it was still attached to the tree. Anyway, whether by popular demand or my own desires, i changed the template. I didn't get any negative feedback, only three people who thought it was better. I also like it better, because it is brighter. I'm not really a dark person. I'm not sure i like the intensity of the blue, but it certainly is better than the black. this is likely the last time i'll change the template for a while, unless someone would like a change in sidebar-size or color or similar. Well, i guess that's it for today!

Valentines Day

Happy Valentine's day, everybody! Yeah. I ate a whole box of chocolate today. I was planning to give someone a valentine, but we didn't have school today because of ice (ummmm, sort of), and my plans were foiled. The upsides were, of course, we didn't have to go to school and i got to sleep until 1:00 P.M. (not joking about this, either).

2-3 things (depending on whether i remember the third thing)

Hey. You may have noticed, although probably not, that in the sidebar there is a link to a flickr site. it is mine, and if you are viewing this in some medium other than the regular blogspot page, the link points to http://flickr.com/photos/spiritfox. The second thing is, that i have created, half by accident, a new layout for my blog, but unless people like it more, i don't want to go to the trouble of changing it. the new template can be found here: http://spiritfox12.googlepages.com/index.html (yes, the "index.html" is actually neccessary because of the way google pages works.) If i were to change the template, the sidebar would include the section about what i'm reading, my albums of the week, etc.
and the third thing..... uuuhhhh....


Oh yeah. from now on, i will try to post once a week, each post with the best photo I've taken that week. Partially because a.I have recently noticed that most of the thousands of pictures i've taken are crap, and b. I want to have something to blog about that isn't really boring. a is based on the expression "practice makes perfect."

new chat thingy in the sidebar.

if you have a comment and can't say it in a comment-thingy for some strange reason, chances are you can't use the sidebar chat thingy i just installed. but it's still pretty cool, right? right? oh yeah, i forgot no one ever sees these messages. of course, if you can disagree with me, then i guess i'm wrong, so there's no point in arguing. i realize that this post is totally pointless and useless recently, but i'm feeling lazy enough that i don't want to press the backspace button.

new cafepress shop

Me and tmforeignguy made a cafepress shop. you can get it at http://www.cafepress.com/spiritscafe
at this time, there are two shirts up, which are both my creation, although i don't consider myself as artistic as tmforeignguy. the window to the soul shirt is my favorite of the two.

GO MAINE!!

go here:
Tenth Amendment Center » REAL ID: Real Resistance

If only Virginia would do the same...
for that matter, if only congress would do the same!

wait, one more thing

hey. go here. it's awesome.

whoops, forgot to add

hey. forgot:
why does bush, who very recently admitted to being "no expert on military matters," have the power to go against nearly every bit of advice on the planet and deploy 20,000 more troops to Iraq? that just confuses me.
oh, and does anyone know how to get a visa to Canada?

Quote from Paul

"Economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims in a sea of oil." --Paul Wolfowitz, commenting on the difference between the situation in Iraq and North Korea.

two movies.

just watched two movies that i haven't seen, even though they've both been out a while. one was woody allen's newest movie, scoop. it was pretty cool. i think it'd be a better theatrical production than a movie, though. the other was MI:III, which i haven't seen yet. it was okay... not great, but okay, which for me is better than most action movies.

hipster PDA

hey. as you may have noticed, i have recently had a strong urge to blog but very, very little to blog about. to remedy this, i have gotten, or rather created, an (or is it a? i'm never sure about h) hipster PDA. you can see more about it here. i will write random crap in it whenever it strikes me, and i may or may not post that random crap here. in other words, if you don't understand a post, it came to me on the bus at 6:30 a.m.

edit: i did not mean that the hipster pda was my idea. i meant i found a cool idea from that site at 43folders and created a hipster pda. so no more confusion.