Vancouver/Alaska

OK, so tomorrow I leave for summer vacation, which will start out with the family flying to Vancouver, British Columbia (that's in Canada, if you don't already know) and then we take a cruise to Alaska! It's going to be awesome with all the stuff we'll do and see, but I don't have the time to explain it all now. I'll post a ton of pictures on my photography blog whenever I can access deviantART (my parents blocked that site because they don't approve of it or something stupid like that...)

anyway, gotta run. Be back in a couple weeks!

HOBY and More...

So I just got back from this thing called HOBY, which stands for Hugh O'Brian Youth, which is a leadership thing that teaches high school sophomores about leadership and how to be good and responsible leaders. It started out seeming like it was going to be extremely cheesy, but it turned out to be pretty cool! It involved kids from all over the state of Missouri from as far away as Kansas City and Joplin to right in my hometown of St. Louis! So there were lots of kids there my age, and they were really cool, and they were all different, but we all had one thing in common, which was that we all had leadership skills, and we all expected this to be some cheesy junk run by some psychotically peppy people! Anyway, it turned out to be awesome, and it ended today.

I could go on forever and ever on that, but I want to talk about something I heard there...

So today this morning there was this optional church service that was mainly for any branch of Christianity, but it was optional because as you can imagine, not everyone there was Christian. Anyway, we sang a few songs, and then the pastor talked about... well you know those kinds of people that stand around at concerts and stuff that are shouting out things like "You're all going to Hell unless you repent right now!" and goes on about how whoever's passing by is Satanistic? Yeah, that's what he showed a video about to help make a point. He first recited a line from the Bible that said that Jesus wanted his followers to be known for loving all others. Then he told us about a story in the book of Mark, chapter 2, where these four men lowered their friend, paralyzed from the neck down on a mat from the roof of this house Jesus was teaching in, and the man on the mat was lowered in front of Jesus, and Jesus looked up at the men holding the ropes, and then back down to the paralyzed man and cured him for what his friends did because they cared for the man so much that they did that for him. Just... something I need to tell everyone. I haven't been to church in a while, and I felt I needed to go. I think I'll start going on more Sundays now... i think I need to go improve my spiritual self.

Well, peace, everyone.

-Swords

What a Way to Start Summer...

So, you know how I broke my teeth about a month ago? Well, apparently in order to put the artificial stuff over the teeth so I can use my front teeth correctly, I had to get a root canal on both my two front top teeth. It wasn't as bad as it's all hyped up to be (at least from what I've heard about it before I got it), it just hurt a bit when the dentist injected the novacaine, and it felt really uncomfortable having my upper lip be all numb... but it didn't hurt. Well, now that my two front teeth are officially dead, I can't bite into anything with them. Well, the only thing that's bothering me now is that my upper lip is still numb... hope that goes away before my job starts... (which, by the way, starts today at 7 PM US central time to whenever the place closes). Well it shouldn't last that long, so I should be OK. I just don't want my lip all swollen when I'm at the Panera Bread Co...

Oh yeah, and I'll probably go to the Renaissance Faire tomorrow with a couple friends! That should be really cool... I think I'll try to get a sword there, since... I could use one. (you can read more about the renaissance faire in my other blog) I think I have enough money, and I intend to get a sword that's battle-ready (meaning that the handle and the blade are made of the same piece of metal so it's useful in fighting. Decorative swords are where the handle and the blade are made of two different pieces of metal welded together, which is bad for fighting because if you did, then the blade would either shatter or fall off the handle)

Exams almost over...

Yeah, I just took my second to last exam today, which was Accelerated Chemistry. The last one, Biology, is on Monday, but once that's over, that's it. And I am practically free the rest of summer!

And about Panera Bread, I did get the job (score one!) but I can't really start working there until two things happen:
1. I take this class called "Planet Bread" which was described to me by the other people at the store as "The easiest, and most fun four and a half hours of work that you get paid for." They also told me to go hungry, since I'm going to be trying a ton of stuff there!
2. I can prove to them that I've had two Hep. A shots. Shouldn't be hard because I already have, and I have vaccination records to prove it.

So yeah, once I've finished doing Planet Bread (which I only have to do once) I can work at the store!

And I just got Maximum Ride 3! I was stopping at this Borders store nearby as I was driving home from school, it was raining really hard, and... it was one of those instances where it's better to just stop somewhere and wait it out, especially for an inexperienced driver like myself... so I walked into the Borders and looked around for the book, and I found that there were only 9 copies left... so I felt lucky because I heard all about how the book was a huge hit, and I thought it might be sold out! Anyway, I plan on reading that when exams are over.

Well, not much else to say, other than the fact that there's a huge rainstorm coming my way (again... third time today! St. Louis has the weirdest weather patterns...)

Peace out!

-Swords

Couple New Things

First off, I've changed the URL of my photography blog to www.bladephotography.blogspot.com, mainly because I thought that was a better URL for a photography blog.

Second off, I start training for my job at Panera Bread Co. tomorrow after exams. I'll learn how to do everything there, which entails operating the register, doing stuff at the bakery area, making soups, salads, and sandwiches, and likely washing the dishes.

Third, Max Ride 3 comes out today! I'll probably get it today or tomorrow if the store still has copies.

Stick Shift

Well, I officially learned how to drive a manual shift car today. Wow, it's not easy... I'm just glad that I didn't blow out that rental car's engine! At least I did learn that I could do it, just not easily. I did, however, kill the engine a couple times on the road from some bad shifting on my part, which was bad because I had to start up the car on the road again...

I'm just thankful I have an automatic shift right now... I don't think I could drive out as far as I normally do to take pictures way far away from home with a manual.

YES!!!

I got it! I officially got the job! Wow, that's just an awesome feeling... so yeah, the Panera Bread Co. manager told me that I could only work if I could work on weekends during the school year after this summer, since they can't really afford to hire just summer workers, and only long-term workers. Anyway, I officially begin on May 30. I'd say what I'd get paid, but... somehow talking about how much money one earns doesn't feel right... but whatever. I'll at least say it's a little more than the minimum legal wage.

Pointfest 2007

OK, so I went to Pointfest 2007 at the Riverport Ampitheatre (now the Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre) on Saturday. It's this annual concert festival for alternative rock music bands both local and national done by 105.7 The POINT FM (their slogan: Everything Alternative). So I went there with my friend Matt, and there are three side stages and the main ampitheatre stage. He wanted to go because The Killers were playing there, and they're his favorite band.

Anyway, it's technically from 10:00 AM to 11:00 PM, but Matt and I got there at about 3:00 PM because we didn't really want to be there all day. When we got there, we went to the nearest stage, where the band Flyleaf was being introduced and they began playing. (each band on the side stages play for about a half hour) Then we went to another stage where they were setting up another band, that began after Flyleaf was done playing, and the next band was this St.Louis based group called Modern Day Zero. They were good (they had a thing for using the F word... they came on and said "WHAT THE F*** IS UP ST. LOUIS!?")

We heard a few of their songs, and then we went back to the first stage and Bullet For My Valentine was playing there. So we listened to a bunch of their songs, and I remember for their last song they told the crowd in front of them to make what I think he(the lead singer, don't know his name) said was a triangle with a circle around it, and he told them if people aren't doing it, then push them out of the way.

Then we went back to the other stage and we saw Papa Roach! So there's a second well-known band we saw. I think Matt got to like them a bit seeing them live.

After that, they set up the main ampitheatre stage, where this band that won a local contest at Pop's (a local music stage) called LYE played first. We didn't hear much of them, though, because we were eating. Then this band from New York, who had never played in St. Louis before called The Red Romance played. They weren't as heavy as the other bands we'd heard earlier, but they were still pretty good in my opinion.

Then the major attractions started.

The last three bands were Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Wolfmother, and The Killers

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus was really cool! They did play Face Down, so that was nice to hear. What was funny about their lead singer was that his hair was long, and it kept going over his face when he was singing and it looked kinda funny (to me at least).

Wolfmother... man, I don't think I've ever gotten that riled up before in my life when they played! Especially when they played their song "Woman", wow, that was just awesome! They also played some new songs they had written, and it was cool. I couldn't believe they were just three guys, the lead singer/guitarist, the bass guitarist/keyboard player, and the drummer.

When The Killers came on, everyone went insane. I took out my phone and called my sister, and put it on speaker, because my sister loves the Killers, and I thought she'd like to hear them playing live.

It was awesome! I left before the encores started because I didn't want to worry about driving home with huge crowds and drunk drivers on the road.

More Probable Summer Job

Well, I just turned in this application to Panera Bread Company yesterday, and the manager wanted to interview me, I guess, today at 4:30! Well, I'll say that's more probable as a summer job! Anyway, I'll most likely be washing dishes for the first few times I'm working there, but I guess it's better than nothing!

Summer Job! (well, maybe...)

Ok, so I've been applying to a whole bunch of places around my area to have summer jobs, like camera stores, and some small food stores that aren't nessecarily restaurants, like ice cream places and places like that. I need gas money desperately, and I need more than just the $20 allowance I get every week from my parents, as my car gets terrible gas mileage, (about 18 MPG)

So today just a couple hours ago, this ice cream place that I applied to on Saturday just called me back, and they want an interview with me! That's probably the furthest I've gotten in the scale of getting a job! So, I'll be talking to the manager tomorrow, maybe... unless he calls while I'm at school and he gets my Mom... but at least I told him that I'd be able to get to the interview sometime next week, most likely Friday after school. So yeah, I may be scooping ice cream for people for a living during the summer! Can't be all that bad, I mean... ice cream parlors are an overall positive atmosphere. Kind of place I'd like to work in.

Ouch! That, and some Semi-Fake teeth...

What a way to start actual non-intro postings in this blog...

I was at tennis practice yesterday, and just as I was finishing off, I went for an out-wide shot, and trying to lob it up so it would go high, my raquet's follow-through swinging motion came up and hit me square in between my two top front teeth! So as you can imagine, that hurt, and yes, I could feel them shattering, well sort of. I instantly put my hand over my mouth, and I looked at my hand, and I saw small fragments and sort of large chips (the largest one was less than an eigth of an inch) in my hand. So as you can imagine, I was in shock, and I couldn't even take my hand away. Well, I only looked at the damage once, and apparently I made a wide Delta-shaped hole (minus the bottom of that character) in-between those two teeth. Yeah, so I had to make an emergency visit to the dentist to get tooth caps. My Mom had to take me there, and she was a nervous wreck, and she was crying. Christ, you'd think I was a model and I just lost a $50 million gig. So when I got there, the dentist put a bunch of tooth-like material that's like clay except it only hardens under UV light, and shaped it like a tooth, and then he shaped it so it was as close to my original tooth as it can be. I helped him out a bit, because he didn't have a picture of my teeth before the incident, but when he was finished, it was OK, but the coloration was a bit off.

Whatever... my Mom was still crying and all emotional about it... sometimes I wish grown women weren't all that emotional about their children, I mean, it can be good to an extent, but not to that extent. So basically my two front teeth are half-fake. Ah, looking at myself in the mirror, they don't look all that bad. I can hardly tell anything's happened, and I'm trying not to talk about that so my Mom doesn't go through her emotional cycle again. Thank God I never let her see what happened to my teeth before I got the fake stuff on.

I'll be getting porcelain (however you spell that) plating on my teeth sooner or later when I can show him a picture, and I pray to God I don't need a root canal... (he said I might need one).

Just glad none of you all know my real name, because I'm not telling anyone I know in person, because I want no more drama crap on this. I've got enough from my Mother.

I shall relax... and try to not think too much of it. I can hardly tell anything happened when I look into the mirror from a distance, unless I want to look really really close.

Peace people.

-Swords