Neil's MindSay Blog

First Day

lightningphyre — 2003-07-11T08:07:00-05:00

Yea,

This is my brand-new blog. Seeing as I have a totally boring life, I've decided to share it with all of you...

If you have a problem with reading stuff I've written, go away. If you have a problem reading stuff that may be classified as stabbing someone in the back, don't read on.

I have many enemies, and many even worse friends. I will bash them in here. That's one of the pluses of signing up for this. I can do that.

In the event of me wanting to protect the person, I may use a codename or no name at all. Codenames will stick to the person forever. Of course, you may be able to figure out who it is just by reading what I've written...

Anyways, that's it. Nothing happened today so there.

-Neil

Swim Meet - Stingrays

lightningphyre — 2003-07-12T04:07:00-05:00

Yea.

I had to get up at 6:00 this morning so that I could get to the swim meet by 7:45. Uggh.

The Stingrays are a really hard team, and they are kinda are rivals. Pretty sure we can win..

I had to swim 5 events, another Uggh:
200 yd. Medley Relay, in which I swam Breaststroke.
100 yd. Freestyle
50 yd. Backstroke
50 yd. Butterfly
200 yd. Freestyle Relay, in which I was anchor.

I don't know if we won yet, still awaiting results

NEW PENS!!!

lightningphyre — 2003-07-12T04:07:00-05:00

YES!

Very happy, I bought some new pens today. They are so cool. One of them is a fountain pen, and the other is a Black 0.2mm Uni-Ball Roller made by Sanford. Buy it!, it owns you!

Picture I SKETCHED with the Uni-Ball (Not nearly as good as in real life cuz I dont have a scanner):

If you can't see it, click here: http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-6/253630/phoenix.JPG.

Terminator 3

lightningphyre — 2003-07-13T05:07:00-05:00

Woah...

I just saw Terminator 3: Rise of the MAchines and it kicked ass. It was sooo cool, it was like, whoah.

You should go see it right now.

-Neil

Swim Meet Results

lightningphyre — 2003-07-14T09:07:00-05:00

Result of the Stingray vs. Rockets swimmeet:

Stingrays: 370

Rockets: 502

Outcome: Rockets are the winners.

Picture

lightningphyre — 2003-07-14T10:07:00-05:00

Hmm,

I just uploaded a pic of me. I think it's kinda cool.

I took the pic on my Intel Create and Share webcam thingy, and then edited it in ACDSee.

At first I wanted to do sepia, but then I just decided to use the colorize option...

-Neil

New Pic

lightningphyre — 2003-07-14T03:07:00-05:00

I added a new pic of me.

It's actually the same pic, except I used the negative option, and added the letters: D, E, M, O, N.

Click on [Input Data] to see the pic...

-Neil

Insanity

lightningphyre — 2003-07-14T05:07:00-05:00

I was just wondering how sane all of you think you are, so.... Vote:

Alicia

lightningphyre — 2003-07-15T04:07:00-05:00

Alicia wanted me to draw a picture of her, and she said, "Make it pretty"...

But then I thought to myself, why do that, when I can make it look realistic?

Well, anyways, normally I don't draw people but since this picture turned out EXACTLY like what Alicia look slike, I figured I'd post it:

If you can't see the image, go here : http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-6/253630/alicia.JPG.

Behind the censor sign were originally really bad teeth with braces, but they didnt show up since I DON'T have a scanner and have to stick to digital cameras..

Of course, Alicia doesn't really look like this.

-Neil

Village Photos

lightningphyre — 2003-07-16T09:07:00-05:00

None of the pictures I've drawn are showing up right now because my host, Village Photos, is updating their hardware or sumthing.

Don't worry ALicia, you're picture will be up soon...

-Neil

Championships

lightningphyre — 2003-07-20T02:07:00-05:00

Over the weekend - SWIM CHAMPIONSHIPS!

Woodland:

OMG! CHampionships was so much fun!

I finaled in almost every event. The only one I didnt final in was 50yd. Butterfly. And I was so mad because I almost made it:

Me and Andy Sieger (he's on Rollingwood also) both got the same qualifying time for the 50 Fly. I think it was like a 31.98... Anyways we had to have a swim-off to see who got tenth seed and the chance to swim in finals.

But even though I improved my qualifying time, he still beat me by like .3 seconds. I was soooo pissed.

So then I became first alternate, and for a minute I thought one of the guys wasn't gonna show up at the ready bench, but he made it at the last minute.

Anyways, we won for the fifth time in a row, but only by like 60.5 points.... It was SOOO close. Johnson Ranch almost beat us but they got a ton of DQ's.

Also, Jenny and Hannah kept stalking this one kid because they are dangerously obsessed with him. And they haev a theory that Alex S. and Tommy T. are "Involved"

Me, Myself, And Him

lightningphyre — 2003-07-21T03:07:00-05:00

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Low
Schizoid:	Moderate
Schizotypal:	Moderate
Antisocial:	High
Borderline:	Low
Histrionic:	Moderate
Narcissistic:	High
Avoidant:	Low
Dependent:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Low
-- Personality Disorder Test --

NBXmas

lightningphyre — 2003-07-23T07:07:00-05:00

YES!!!

Today my mom bought me the Special Edition Nightmare Before Christmas DVD...

I've already watched it twice and I still have yet to watch the special features.

Unfortunately, they had to order the Soundtrack 'cuz they didn't have it in stock.

-Neil

Guess Who?

lightningphyre — 2003-07-24T07:07:00-05:00

Guess who this innocent second grader is?

Although she refused to wear dresses even back then, she did have long hair. This girl now recites things like, "To the batcave!" and talks baout her telepathic twin.

Have you guessed who it is? Hover your mouse over the picture for the answer...

HEAR MY ROAR!!!

lightningphyre — 2003-07-28T01:07:00-05:00

I am SOOOOO mad!

When I logged onto AIM today, it asked me to download the newest version and so I did. But when I was downloading, there was a problem about some patch, and I figured it was probably my DEADAIM.

So I went to where it told me to go to and downloaded it again, and it worked. So of course, being the worrying person I am, I immediately chck to see if DEADAIM is still there. Alas, it wasn't.

So then I take about 3 minutes to go to download.com and find DEADAIM again. But guess whta..... You have ot pay for it now!!!! ROAR!!!!

So now I'm on AIM, with the ads, and the multiple windows because I no longer have the option to put them all in one window... :(

I think I might try to get a version of DEADAIM off of Kazaa. But what I really want is AIMutation... But that's even more expensive than DEADAIM.

So if anyone has found a site that lets you download DEADAIM for free, please tell me.

-Neil

Stupid Tests

lightningphyre — 2003-07-28T01:07:00-05:00

I really ~~dislike~~ HATE all those stupid little personality tests by quizzilla, but I managed to find a few I like, so here they are: (I removed the links cuz those piss me off)

Nihilist Bear

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Fourth Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

MY QUIZ!!!

lightningphyre — 2003-07-29T11:07:00-05:00

Finally, its complete:

Take the WHAT DOES NEIL THINK OF YOU Quiz.

Images have been scaled down.

HYPOCRACY!

lightningphyre — 2003-07-30T04:07:00-05:00

I AM SUCH A HYPOCRITE!

I've always said that I would NEVER wear collared or striped shirts... ::Shudder:: I hate them and they just look so WIERD!

But guess what I had to do today? I had to go shopping for clothes for gay-ass Jesuit. And guess what Jesuit requires? That you wear either collared shirts or Jesuit logo-wear.

Well of ocurse I would never wear Jesuit clothing, so guess what I had to buy? COLLARED SHIRTS!!!

And to make it worse I bought 8 of them! I BOUGHT 8!!!! I feel so terrible, like I can never trust my self again. The only person I could ever truly believe and now he's turned into a hypocrite... Auggh, the agony.

-Neil

Hermitage

lightningphyre — 2003-08-07T01:08:00-05:00

I'M BACK!!!!!!

After 6 days of not being on the computer, I am finally back. I feel like a hermit. For the last six days I locked myself in my room. Actually, I didn't lock myself in, I don't have a lock, I just like saying I did.

Anyways... I locked myself in my room and CLEANED!!! You're probably thinking, "It took him six days to clean his room?" Well, you're wrong... It took me three weeks.

My room was the king of messy rooms. Not only was I attatched to the mess, I didn't wanna have to do it. But anyways, I finally finished. It's so clean it looks twice the size of what it used to.. Plus I rearranged all the furniture.

Oh, I almost forgot... I also had to read the worst book ever called Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. It's for dumb Jesuit. But that's not the worst part...

I now have to read the Odyssey by Homer, translated by Alan Mendelbaum. It's so boring. I'm on like page 38 of 500, and I have like 2 weeks to read it and answer a shitload of questions. So I may dissapear for another 6 days... Uggh.

-Neil

My Disorder

lightningphyre — 2003-08-07T01:08:00-05:00

This isn't what I actually got, but I think this one fits me more.

YAY!

lightningphyre — 2003-08-07T01:08:00-05:00

Had to delete thepicture... It was too damn big.
You are one of Alicia's best friends!! Of course
you probably already knew that anyway,
considering you're her best friend. But the
point is, you kick a lotta ass!

Does Alicia like you?
brought to you by Quizilla

The first time I did it I did all the wierd "Alicia I wanna fuflfill your fantasy" ones... Heh heh...

Happiness

lightningphyre — 2003-08-07T07:08:00-05:00

"Happiness is/
Two scoops of ice cream/
Five different crayons/
Telling the time..."

Yee-haw... I'm happy.

First of all I got to like page 190 of the Odyssey so I am officially more than one quarter done with it. I felt I needed a break.

Plus, Alicia has stated that my blog is funnier than hers. Let it be known to all! But I don't think its true, I mean... I don't have funny stories like the one Alicia's writing...

Which reminds me, Im angry cuz she hasn't released the second chapter yet... URGGG!

-Neil

Windows

lightningphyre — 2003-08-08T02:08:00-05:00

Hmmm...

Today these people came to change the windows in my room and my sisters room. So anyways, theres like this big ol' gaping hole in my wall and i wanna run into my room and jump out the window. Then I could be all, "Cowabunga!!!!" or "Geronimo!"...

Yea...

The Most Accurate Quiz EVER!!!

lightningphyre — 2003-08-08T02:08:00-05:00

I just took the most accurate quiz ever:

Find your inner random object! by Emily

It is sooo true... I have always been a spoon. If spoon was a gender, I would get a sex change so I could be a spoon.

Which reminds me... Alicia and Caitlin owe me a bent spoon. I stole it fair and square. But when you guys stole it, well, that was just plain wrong.

-Neil

Hermitage 2

lightningphyre — 2003-08-18T08:08:00-05:00

Once again I dropped off the face of the internet. But I'm back. So its okay.

Mainly I was gone because Ive been reading The Odyssey. But Ive been done with it for like 3 days so I dont know whats up. Oh well.

I feel like the unabomber... Is it spelled una or uni?

-Neil

Water Polo

lightningphyre — 2003-08-18T08:08:00-05:00

Urrrghghhhh....

I feel BAD.

Just had double practices for the first time at Jesuit... Uggh. We didn't even play, we just swam.

In the first practice I had to get out half way through and throw up, but then I got back in teh pool. In the second one, I had to do kicking cuz I couldnt make the send offs for the sets we were doing.

Urrgh

-Neil

DeadAIM AGAIN!!!

lightningphyre — 2003-08-18T08:08:00-05:00

IM angry once again. I just downloaded the new version of AIM because Ive been a complete hermit the past few days. Anyways, I had to go through the same "Its not working" process as last time, cuz of my DeadAIM. Anyways, like last time, my DeadAIM options weren't showing up.

So I went into my start menu and repaired DeadAIM, like last time... BUT THE OPTIONS DONT SHOW UP!!! So I tried repairing it again but it says I don't need to.

So all in all, I think AIM made it so that DeadAIM doesn't work anymore. If anyone has any advice please post it in a comment. I can't stand having seperate windows for all my numerous conversations...

-Neil

Polo Part 2, And Other Things

lightningphyre — 2003-08-19T06:08:00-05:00

Urrgh.

We had water polo again today for two and a half hours. Not as bad as yesterday, but pretty bad. I didn't throw up today, so that was a plus.

Also, I feel left out. Everyone has Camp Bronco and schedule pick ups, without me!!! I feel alone.

Which reminds me, I have to call Andrew to find out his schedule and demand that he sit with me at lunch. I hope his schedule's exactly the same as mine, but it probably won't be.

I had a lot of other goods stuffs to say, but I forgot them in the frustration of trying to fix the headers on my stupid Odyssey paper. I managed to make it a bit controversial which I always strive for because I think it gives me an edge over all the other clones who provide stock answers for stock questions. But its especially good since I have to turn it into a Jesuit teacher.. FIGHT THE POWER!

-Neil

Orientation and Partying

lightningphyre — 2003-08-21T03:08:00-05:00

6:00 AM: Wake Up

8:30 AM: Orientation begins with a Welcome Liturgy. For all you mindless idiots, a liturgy is likea mass. With praying... And singing... Not my cup of tea, or coffee, or soda, or anything. I hate church. I hate Jesuit. Ultimate hate.

So orientation began with a mass, not good. But then we go to our home rooms and find out who our big brothers are. My homeroom turned out to be Mr. Novinsky's, the Studio Art teachers, room. That's okay.

Since home rooms are by alphabetical order, I was with the C's. That was good. It means Andrew's in my home room, and all the kids from my team in the sports camp.

But then came my big brother. This kid is the biggest nerd/geek/dweeb in the world. He wears those really high socks, his shorts end two inches above his knees and have elastic waistbands. He tucks his shirt in. He's skinnier than Jimmy, and doesn't play any sports. He's a senior and only 15 years old. He's taking mUlti-Variable Differential Calculus over the internet because it's so advanced they don't offer it at Jesuit. He has never taken a P.E. class. Urrgh.

The only good thing about that was that my two fellow little brothers to this guy are guys I know. So I'm not a complete loner.

Anyways, I'm getting ready for Jimmy's party. I'm gonna bring the best gifts... Heh-heh. It'll be my last night with my friends and of freedom before Jesuit, so it better be good and if anyone pisses me off I'll punch them in the nose. Trust me, just because I don't fight doesn't mean I can't.

-Neil

BTW: My currents are random, except I really do like the song.

Jesuit

lightningphyre — 2003-08-23T07:08:00-05:00

Well, well, well... What to say?

Yesterday was my first day at Jesuit, blurgghhh...

Guess what time I had to get up? I got up at 5:50. It was crazy. I felt like I was gonna die. But then when I took my shower, I just like sat down for 20 minutes and so I felt kinda better after that.

For breakfast I had my old stand-by; waffles. I haven't had waffles since like the end of middle school. It's kinda sad. In more than one respect.. I went all sumemr without waffles, that's one respect. The other is that waffles are all I eat during the school year.

So then Nels, Nells, Nels, or however you spell his name came and picked me up. I don't know if he was making an effort, or if he's just normally outgoing, but he actually managed to keep involved in a conversation.

So after picking Tim up and like a half hour of driving, we got to school. I thought I was gonna drown walking to my locker because it was raining so hard. I also kinda hoped that the school got hit by lightning.

So school started and I was happy cuz of the lightning, cuz that meant we wouldn't have to have water polo practice. But it stopped during first period, just my luck. So school was pretty much okay, except for P.E. in which they told us we would be required to take showers. But that's not the worst part. Teh showerheads aren't spaced out along the wall, instead they're like in groups of three practically coming from the same pipe so you stand like half a foot away from two other people, angled towards them.

Then after school I had to wait until 4 o clock for practice. We got out of school at like 1 by the way. Practice was just swimming again, as always. I was gonna get out at one point and hide in the bathroom for a set but I didn't.

So all in all, school was okay. I do know I'm gonna hate my Latin teacher though. I think I might be able to grow to like Jesuit, but ther's no way I'll ever prefer the thought of going there to going to B.V.

-Neil

Pictures

lightningphyre — 2003-08-23T08:08:00-05:00

I'm redoing my pictures, so that's why you can't see me right now... Yea.

New Layout

lightningphyre — 2003-08-23T09:08:00-05:00

I've decided to creat my own layout...

Yea, in fact, I've already started. Caitlin was my influence with her whole wrathful god comment. Anyways, all I've done so far is like the comments and stuff, but eventually the whole mindsay picture and stuff will be gone replaced by more godly stuff. So, wait.

-Neil

Lack of Smarts

lightningphyre — 2003-08-23T10:08:00-05:00

This is straight from an "off the record" chat:

BassPlyr1305: i kinda thought this would be harder as i'm not really a genius

You heard it from her folks...

-Neil

Layout Part 2

lightningphyre — 2003-08-25T08:08:00-05:00

Here's the dillio folks:

Soon all the colors will be fixed so theres no more ugly reds and greens and blues.

The mindsay logo will be replaced by a much cooler image.

I will get a more wrathful, goldy picture for myself of myself.

And i've got a super nift extra spiffy surprise planned for the backgroudn of the main part of the layout...

So hold your horses and it should be done by the end of Wednesday, depending on my schedule and time for artwork... Heh heh. Caitlin, you better not ruin the surprise.

-Neil

Poll for Blog

lightningphyre — 2003-08-27T09:08:00-05:00

Layout and NBXMAS

lightningphyre — 2003-08-28T09:08:00-05:00

Yes!

Finally, I'm done witht= the main part of my blog. I'll be making some minor changes, including a banner at the top that says something like Wrathful God in Latin with some artwortk. But other than that I'm done. By the way, I don't plan on making this layout public, but if you have to have it, IM me or email me (both can be found on the about page) and I'll decided whether or not to let you use the layout.

Also, I got the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack yesterday and I've been listening to it nonstop. I don't know how they managed it, but the soundtrack seems even better than the movie... Buy both if you dont have them.

-Neil

HELP!!!

lightningphyre — 2003-09-03T09:09:00-05:00

I need ideas for my Wrathful God banner... I found out how to say it in Latin, but I can't decide what to make it look like.

What I have right now is real basic... and dumb.

SO leave a sacrifice with what you think I should make it look like.

-Neil

Stuff

lightningphyre — 2003-09-05T09:09:00-05:00

Hrmmm...

I've almost decided which lucky girl gets to go to homecoming...

I think I've decided on a demonic name for me: Aderikar.

I finished the wrathful god banner, it just isn't up yet cuz I'm lazy.

I think "God" punished me today in mass at Jesuit. I was bored in the beginning so I drew 9 antichrist signs and 9 pentagrams in the air with my finger, and then at the eucharist part I thought I was gonna die. I couldnt see anything but blurs, I felt like I was gonna pass out and throw up at the same time, and I was staggering. Totally unhooch.

Pics and Pages

lightningphyre — 2003-09-05T09:09:00-05:00

My new Policy on Pictures:

In order to keep my bandwidth low, I will only place pictures that I have drawn on the blog for three days. After that, I will remove them and leave a link in there place.

Soon I will be obtaining a website where I will put these pictures, pictures I have taken with a camera, random stuff, links, layouts, and anything else I want. I'm thinking baout calling it "When Angels Deserve to Die" which would keep in touch with the Wrathful God theme and honor SoaD at the same time.

-Neil

National Ice Cream Appreciation Awareness Day (NICAAD)

lightningphyre — 2003-09-11T09:09:00-05:00

I proclaim today the first ever National Ice Cream Appreciation Awareness Day. It shall from now on be added to the Clark List of Holidays, which will be up and running soon.

This is a sad holiday, when people give up their favorite ice cream in order to become aware of jus thow much they really do appreciate ice cream.

The history behind this holiday:

Today, being Sept 11th, the terrorists attacked the ice cream machine at Jesuit. They made it so that it would not accept any money, not even 100 dollar bills. Anyways, this made many people upset.

The people had ot go without their ice cream, often times lingering around the machine in hopes of it miraculosly starting to work. But they waited in vain, for it did not.

The addicts, such as the Wrathful God, were seen lying in the hallways, delusioned by the thought of ice cream. There was much pity.

So in remembrance of this travesty, we now celebrate NICAAD. If for some reason the ice cream machines are still not working tomorrow, the holiday shall forever be extended to commemorate the time it took for ice cream to be brought to the masses. It shalle then be called National Time of Ice Cream Appreciation Awareness (NTICAD). You shall be updated.

-Neil

School Spirit!!! Right...

lightningphyre — 2003-09-15T08:09:00-05:00

I HAVE SO MUCH SCHOOL SPIRIT, IT'S AMAZING!!!

Right...

Today was the first day of Spirit Week. We had to wear our class color, which is black, to get points. I was all thinking to my self, well, I like black, and if we get a prize, then it's ok. So I wore black... URGH.

And today was also club signups. I signed up for two, CAN'T YOU JUST SMELL THE SPIRIT?!?!?!

One was the F.O.P. (Fair Oaks Posse). It's headed by the guy that drives me and I was all thinking ot myself, "Well it's always good be friends with the gang right?"

I also signed up for Rennaissance club which is a lot cooler than it sounds, believe you me. Sorry Caitlin, I had to steal some of your super-genius.

-Neil

Everything

lightningphyre — 2003-09-19T08:09:00-05:00

Wow, I haven't updated in like forever... It makes me angry. I've had so much to say but I forgot most of it now. Anyways, I'll try to remember...

Let's stretch way back... BV FOOTBALL GAME: HIGHLANDS?

Oh, that was a fun night. Got to see lots of my friends. Now I'm sad... Oh yeah, and Katie Davis tried to get these two guys that go to Jesuit that I know to ask her to homecoming. And they kinda just looked at her and turned away. But then, later that night... uggggh..... I was molested by Jesuit guys and swim team guys... It was horrible. And Jimmy rubbed mayonnaise on my face...

Let's see, what else.

Oh yeah, I'm so mad at myself. Behind on a bunch of projects, such as:

Selling magazines ot get free tickets and pictures at homecoming.

Designing my Halloween layout for the good ol' blog.

AND WORST OF ALL: I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED PLANNING FOR HALLOWEEN YET!!!!! tHERE'S BARELY ANY TIME YET AND I HAVEN'T BEEN TO A SINGLE STORE TO PREPARE FOR THE DECORATIONS... URGGGGH!!!! WHAT WILL I DO WITH MYSELF???

O yeah, added some new songs to my favorites list:

When Darkness Falls : Killswitch Engage

We Will Rise : Arch Enemy

I, Voyager : Nevermore

Burn In Hell : Twisted Sister

There's other stuff but I'm forgetting it all.

-Neil

Two More Things

lightningphyre — 2003-09-19T08:09:00-05:00

Water polo tournament tomorrow- That'll be interesting. I'm guessing its gonna be like a swim meet but more intense. So of course I'll have to starve myself. Don't want any barf in the pool.

And after that I'll be going to Holy Bowl and then JAck's house for the night, cuz of the super secret party for my dad.

Some random thing -

Bit of trivia ...

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

-Neil

Halloween

lightningphyre — 2003-10-01T08:10:00-05:00

OMG!!!!!!!!

ONLY THIRTY DAYS LEFT UNTIL HALLOWEEN AND I HAVEN'T STARTED ANY DECORATING, I HAVEN'T BEEN TO ANY STORES, AND I HAVEN'T GOT YM COSTUME READY!!!!! WHAT WILL I DO?????

Today I put up a calender thingy I made counting down til Halloween with a pic of Jack S on it in my locker and it got mixed emotions.

On a lighter note my birthday and Jesuit's homecoming are in 17 days.

Also, BV's homecoming is in 3 days.

-Neil

Wow

lightningphyre — 2003-10-06T08:10:00-05:00

You know what? I haven't updated in a loooong time.

Man, water polo takes so much time, I wanna cry... Not really, but you get the picture.

My last practice is on the 21st which is nice, in some ways.

Alicia is making me mad 'cuz she won't be my friend with benefits... :)

I gotta go explore this whole new Mindsay thingy v 2.0 or whatever it is. It might make my super duper top secret Christmas blog easier to make.

I don't know if I'm gonna make a Halloween one, cuz I got this great idea to use this picture that my favorite artist Magnus drew, but she probably wont let me and I'm afraid to ask...

-Neil

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

lightningphyre — 2003-10-06T08:10:00-05:00

I have recently changed to v2 so if my blog looks like crap for a while, its cuz Ill be working on it... So dont even look at this place if you can help it....

EDIT: I decided I hate the new version... It doesn't make things easier. So I'm sticking with the old.

Expenditures

lightningphyre — 2003-10-13T07:10:00-05:00

YES!!!!

I got to go Halloween shopping yesterday. I was all pumped 'cuz I htought we were gonna go to Evangeline's but we ended up only going to Spirit... But it was still good.

I'm happy, I bought this skull and a CD made by the same company that made the CD that I used last year. So far I'm pleased.

Then we went to Zumies and I bought a new pair of shoes. My dad payed for those 'cuz shit knows I wasn't gonna.

So anyways... I mainly only put this post up to keep those annoying emails away that remind you to post...

But soon, my friends, I will return from this slumber known as "Water Polo".

-Neil

Awakening

lightningphyre — 2003-11-14T03:11:00-05:00

The wrathful god has been asleep for an eternity it seems, but his worshippers can stop worrying, he has awakened... Of course, his enemies should start skipping town.

But anyways, I'm back, and plan on once again frequently updating my blog.

ALL MUST BOW DOWN TO ME!!!!

Soundtrack of My Life

lightningphyre — 2003-11-14T03:11:00-05:00

I am planning on writing the soundtrack of my life. What is that, you ask? Well, its a list of songs that pertain to different topics in my life.

In other words, each track is a topic, such as school life, or how the mailman freaks me out. Then, I find a song that pertains to that topic, or expresses it in some way.

But what I need help with is figuring out topics fro different tracks, so if you have any ideas, leave a comment or IM me or call me or something.

-Neil

Faces...

lightningphyre — 2003-12-02T09:12:00-05:00

YES!!!

I got a new pic of me uploaded... Ok, it's like the same pic, but this time its all black and white and my eyes look super dee duper.

-Neil

Past Four Days

lightningphyre — 2003-12-08T05:12:00-05:00

Wheeew... Man, I've been meaning to update for like the peat four days but I just never got around to it. So, anyways, heres the past four days in a nutshell.

Friday: Heard Aqua's "Barbie GirL" on the way to school, which I hadn't heard ina while. Thought it was neato.

Saturday: Water Polo Tournament. Had to get up at like 5:30 in order to be in Merced at 8:15. Played like 4 games when we were only supposed to play 3. It was freezing fucking cold. I am so out of shape, I got sooooo tired. Met the coolest person on AIM.

Sunday: Had to get up at like 10 to be at a private swim lesson at 10:30. Water Polo has screwed up my technique. Took Redd to dog park. Got a number 4 at Carls Jr. but with criss cut fries instead of regular fires. They were the best criss cut fires I've ever had. I also realized I always eat them one criss at a time.

Monday (Today you moron): Dress atire for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception at school. Don't ask me what that means. Something to do with when the holy spirit banged Mary like an incubus and they called her a "virgin" still. Anyways, wore a black and white pineapple tie I bought in Hawaii. Super cool. Got compliments on outfit starting about one minute after I left the house. Don't know if that's good or bad. Added the first ever public song to my Soundtrack of My Life.

-Neil

Braces, BESTNESS, and Vocabulary

lightningphyre — 2003-12-10T08:12:00-05:00

Well, let's see...

Today I had to go to this one place to get x-rays for my upcoming braces. Yes, that is right, braces. Anyways, I was thinking, what good is the lead vest if they're pumping these x-rays into your head. Seems to me it doesn't help much. Anyways, Pros: Got out of school early, will be getting braces... Cons: Will be getting braces...

Also, I was surfing the blog-network like a mad Matrixy person and I came to the conclusion, that of all the people all I know, and many of the people I don't... MY BLOG IS THE ~~BEST~~ ULTIMATE!!!!!

And also again, today I learned the meaning of a new word: lunch munch n : when the school brings food from other places... Now you may think, no big deal, we've known that for forever. But I consider it quite an accomplishment seeing as I don't go to FUCKING B.V.!!!!!

-Neil

Memories and the INVADER

lightningphyre — 2003-12-14T04:12:00-05:00

Ahhh... Today I saw a commercial for a new Power Rangers series.. Looks like its gonna be a bore, just like all the other ones. Not that I watch them, but I did watch the original two series when I was little. Those were good, especially the green and white ranger... But then they came up with all the sequels and stuff, with like time travel and shit... Not so cool. Anyways, at least the new series is reverting to using dinosaurs again... But they only have a red, blue, and yellow ranger, and they all look like depressed outcast teens. W/e.

Just watched the best episode of Invader Zim ever on the Nicktoon channel. The first like mini-plot was kinda boring, but then the second one, entitled "The Wettening" was quite possibly the best one I have ever seen. Sigh, the good days are slipping by.

I should be studying for finals, which are on Wed, Thurs, and Fri, but I don't want to. But then at least there will be Christmas break. Thinking about school reminds me of two other things, neither very happy. Like I said, the good days are slipping by... I'm getting old.

-Neil

Stress and the Various Systems

lightningphyre — 2003-12-16T08:12:00-05:00

Ummm.... By the way, that was more of a sigh than an I-don't-know-what-to-say-so-I'll-say-umm umm...

I broke the little window on my cell phone today. Its all cracked and shit. So that kinda made me mad/ made me stresse dmroe than I already am. Especially since my hair keeps getting caught in the multitude of cracks. But it can be fixed with a new face plate. Which is good, cuz like a week ago I saw a printed confirmation for the order of a face plate I told my mom I wanted. So "Santa" will be the savior of my cell phone.

Speaking of Santa, I beat that system years ago. It all started when I accidentally found my sisters Barbie Jeep. Ever since then I've had a knack for finding presents. I usually find about 3 presents for both my sister and myself. 3 each that is. And 2 of those are usually on accident. But when I actually go hunting, whew, it's a massacre. Sometimes I'll find presents though and not even know it until someone opens them on Christmas. Anyways, I've found like 3 presents for me so far this year, although my mom dismissed one of them as for my cousin (I know that's not true). I still have found the main course yet though, so I'm still looking.

And talking of systems, lets talk about the school system. Finals start tomorrow, which is the main reason for my stress. All I have tomorrow is Global Studies, for which I am thankful. Ah, I only have to be at school from 10:30 to 12:00. One of the only joys of Jesuit...

And the final system: System of a Down. I'm listening to their CD for like the first time in over a month. Which surprizes me, I don't know why it is. It's been caling my name for days now, but I just haven't had time. But as I type this I hear pogopogopogo in my ears.

-Neil

I AM A GOD!!!

lightningphyre — 2003-12-16T08:12:00-05:00

Become a God or Goddess. by zerogirl
Name:
God/Goddess of	Celebration
Element:	Wind
Animal Companion:	Cougar
Weak against	Heat
Weapon:	Katana

Created with quill18's MemeGen!

Finally, some verification, but they got it all wrong... I'm the God of Wrath, everyone knows that. My element is anything destructive. I have no companions and no weaknesses. I choose whatever weapon I want. Hell, I don't even know what a katana is...

-Neil

Tests, Presents and Metal

lightningphyre — 2003-12-17T08:12:00-05:00

Today was my Global Studies final. It was so easy, it wasn't even funny. Then again, I did have super good luck going for me. I had my lucky Tiki God keychain, I drew a tiki god on ym cheat sheet, I had my Bottle-O'-Luck in my sweatshirt pocket, and I was wearing four leaf lcover boxers. Good times. Also, my mom said she would pray for me, which I almost laughed out loud at. Anyways, the test was 90 minutes long and I only used 55 so for the rest I listened to System of a Down.

After I got home from school, which I attended from 10:30 to 12:30 (ha ha) I went on the prowl for Christmas presents. I found: one of those radio/cd players you put in the shower, a sweatshirt I think is for my sister, the labels and letters, a Get Fuuzy book, and a Norelco electirc shaver thing. Now you may be wondering what the labels and letters are. Well, every year my mom makes sticky labels to attatch to the presents so me and my sister know who's is who's. She also writes letters from Santa telling us what we did good on over the course of the year and what we need to improve. They also say get along better with your brother/sister. Also, normally I would've assumed that the book and shaver were for my dad, since we always get him a Get Fuzzy book, but they were hidden in his closet and since I'm the only other shaving Get Fuzzy reader, I think they are for me. I'm upset, I still haven't found the main event yet...

Also, I watched The Social History of Piercings on MTV today. Man.... I can't wait to get my piercings. Ahhh, I'll be so happy, and they'll complement my braces nicely. :)

-Neil

More Finals and Publicity

lightningphyre — 2003-12-18T03:12:00-05:00

Urrghhh... Today I took my English final and my Latin final. The prompt for English was really stupid so I ended up writing about Santa. If you really wanna know how it ties into the prompt, ask me; but I won't waste space here. I'll probably get an A+ for originality and like an A- for the actual essay.

Then I took my Latin final, it didn't go as well. Uggg, I will never memorize all the different case endings or know what the Ablative is for. Probably B- to B on that test.

Only good part about finals is I started school at 9 and got out at 12...

Tomorrow is my Art and Algebra 2 (H) final. I think I'm gonna do really bad on the math one...

But I'm mildly happy today because I realized that if you type Wrathful God into Google it bring syou to this most wonderful of Blogs.

Oh and this morning my dad got all excited because on the back of the Sports section in the Bee they had like the top players in the high school sports in the surrounding area. And three of the water polo guys were from Jesuit, one of them happening to be the top guy. And so he didn't exactly say it, I knew when he pointed to his picture he was trying to say "Gee Neil, you could be like this guy someday, gawrsh!"

-Neil

This is Quite Possibly the Most Interesting Title Ever::To whom it may concern:

lightningphyre — 2003-12-22T04:12:00-05:00

To whom it may concern: ::coughAliciaandCaitlincough::

When it comes to naming my various entries, I choose to use a direct approach and create a simple title by using various key elements from the entry.

Although some people may choose to use strange and random titles like "Retarded Rainbows in Spring" when writing about plastic surgery, it is my right to decline that sort of behavior.

If for some reason a reader finds my titles boring, they may choose to decline to read the title, the entry, or my blog altogether. That is their right.

I do make my titles 'boring' for a reason, however. When reviewing my entries, I find it easier to have titles that actually the describe the text as opposed to having to read through every entry to find what I want.

This whole entry in a nutshell: "I'll make my titles how I want"

-Neil

Holiday Season

lightningphyre — 2003-12-23T10:12:00-05:00

I have decided I officially do not like the holiday season. Sure, Christmas is great because I get presents; but in return I am required to go to church.

New Year's Eve can be fun, or it cannot be. Chances are this year it'll be average. Which reminds me, I have to call Andrew.

Also, during this time, I'm cranky and sleep-deprived. Which doesn't make me happy.

And even more also, it always seems that during the Christmas break I tend to be very hermitish and not see my friends much, which isn't very good since I think lately I've pretty much dropped off the social chart with my friends from B.V. I mean sure, I still talk to some of them and stuff, but I haven't really seen them in a long time...

I don't like the holidays.

-Neil

Christmas

lightningphyre — 2003-12-26T12:12:00-05:00

Weeehehhhehehehe

I got mounds of good gifts... Yes!!!!
But I realize that today is no longer Christmas, and that now I must celebrate the sacred Canadian tradtion that is Boxing Day. It would help if I knew what to do though.

I was going to keep a chronological list of the gifts I recieved so that you could feel as if you were with me as I ripped open my presents, but I realized some people might find that too boring.

So I'll only give you the highlights.... Well, the three main gifts I recieved were.... Umm, it's hard to pick. So I'll choose:
My 10GB iPOD which I named PODi
A compilation of three DVDs
and Journey Into the Void by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman

I got other stuff too, but I wouldn't want to BORE you with the details...

-Neil

A Test

lightningphyre — 2004-01-05T04:01:00-05:00

The World Is MINE! by Demonac
Name:
You will conquer:	Jay Leno's chin (that's some serious real-estate).
Your title will be:	Warlord
You will succeed by:	Creating your own religion where you are God.
Your Enforcers will be:	T1000s (from Terminator 2).
Your first act as ruler:	Have Pinky and the Brain imprisoned (just in case).

Created with quill18's MemeGen!

Notice how it recognizes my rule as God... Although I'm not so sure about the title "Warlord"...

Gluttony

lightningphyre — 2004-01-06T08:01:00-05:00

I just remembered that I wanted to make a post on Sunday but didn't have time...

Well, my sister was having her birthday dinner that night even though her birthday was Monday... So, she dragged us out of the house. That would have been fine, but she took us to... shudder... Hometown Buffet.

Now, anyone you that know me know that I HATE and am GROSSED OUT by obese people... Well, Hometown Buffet just happens to be where all the obese people live. It's like they are born, get married, and have kids there; all the while eating.

Also there's a lot of old people there. Fat old people. Even worse, my family wasn't blessed with a booth so we got one of the tables that's like 2 inches from all the other tables ever made. And so, of course, a huge fat old lady sat next to me... Uggh.

Although, it seems that fat people always have hot daughters... I wonder why.

-Neil

My Mommy Said Not To Talk To Strangers (lame attempt at interesting subject)

lightningphyre — 2004-01-07T07:01:00-05:00

Well...

I've been looking at all the extremely lame blogs of people who have changed to version 2. I was thinking to myself: Man, the website says it makes it easier to change, but really it doesn't... Hmmm.

Although, I do envy one thing about the version 2 blogs. You can see who's looked at your blog. That's splendorific. I wish I could have that. Of course, if that was in my blog, I would have to rename it to be something like: Followers or Worshippers... Then again, with the way those things look, it would ruin the clean, sleek, holy design of my blog...

So now I've decided to urge all strangers (you know who you are), to leave me a sacrifice and pledge yourself to my worship.

-Neil

The Wrathful God: the Destroyer; the Demon

lightningphyre — 2004-01-10T08:01:00-05:00

You are Form 8, Demon: The Destroyer.

"And The Demon took advantage of the chaos
and seized civillization. With grace and
style, Demon slit The Goddess's belly and
drowned the world in her blood. The Goddess,
The Demon, and the world were no
more."

Some examples of the Demon Form are Seth (Egyptian)
and The Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Christian).
The Demon is associated with the concept of
destruction, the number 8, and the element of
earth.
His sign is the full moon.

As a member of Form 8, you are a very strong willed
individual. You don't let others' opinions
sway your own and you're usually not afraid to
speak your mind. However, some may see you as
a bit overly passionate but it's just because
you never back down from your values. No
matter what, you always do everything with
style. Demons are the best friends to have
because they will back you up.

Which Mythological Form Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

|Q|U|I|Z|Z|E|S|
My Anti-Drug

lightningphyre — 2004-01-10T08:01:00-05:00

Katie and Alicia will get a kick outta this one:

YOU HAVE BREAST IMPLANTS!!!

what's YOUR deepest secret?
brought to you by Quizilla

I AM THE ULTIMATE:

You know so much about the nightmare before
christmas. You must research and study it as
much as I do. I have loved this movie since I
was a kid and studied it very hard.
Congratulations.Please Please Please vote for
my quiz.

XxThe Best and Most Challenging Quiz of The Nightmare Before ChristmasxX
brought to you by Quizilla

Heh, Abercrombie and Fitch, that reminds me of MAD TV:
Your an Abercrombie & Fitch Shirt. You are probably
popular, and a lot of people like you, but
sometimes you get on others nerves. Your
preppey and fun, confident and and cool,
humorous and usually happy. You care a bit
about your appearance, and you are probably
attractive, making a lot of people like you as
well. Abercrombie Shirts are fun people who
know how to have good time.

What random object are you? Many detailed outcomes - find out about your personality!
brought to you by Quizilla

I dont even know what a Tim Tam is:

What Snack Food are You? (With Cool Pics!!)
brought to you by Quizilla

So Close:

My inner child is sixteen years old!

Life's not fair! It's never been fair, but while
adults might just accept that, I know
something's gotta change. And it's gonna
change, just as soon as I become an adult and
get some power of my own.

How Old is Your Inner Child?
brought to you by Quizilla

But my convertible doesn't haeva backseat:
Back seat of a car

Wheres the first place you'll get it on?
brought to you by Quizilla

How Unfortunate:
Sadly...you're not a peanut butter jelly sandwich.

r u a peanut butter sandwich??
brought to you by Quizilla

I Hate When People Say Woot:
U R EVIL just like me MUAHAHAHAHAHA we will destroy
the world
together!!!!!!!!!!!!MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

R U destined 2 the Darkness or the light?
brought to you by Quizilla

Sigh, I Remember Redwall:
You are a Ferret! A smart fierce warrior. You have
no compassion and only care for yourself, and
have a lust for power.

Wich Redwall creature would you be?
brought to you by Quizilla

Dammit, I Always Wanted To Be A Ninja:
You're no ninja. Your just another one of those
damn wannabees.

Are you a ninja?
brought to you by Quizilla

I'm Not So Sure About The Women's Bathroom:

The Evil Overlord Prophecy Thing! by eon337
What is the name that shall strike fear in the spleens of the multitudes?
Date you will usurp power:	March 23, 2234
You will usurp power from:	The existing goverment.
Your trusted second in command will be:	The entire world.
Your base of operations will be:	A women's restroom.
Your secret weakness will be:	Duh! It's a SECRET!

Created with quill18's MemeGen!

My Head Hurts

lightningphyre — 2004-01-11T03:01:00-05:00

My head hurts, mainly for a burnch of different reasons.

Firstly I had like 12 little girls running around my house screaming last night because it was my sisters birthday party. I uncharacteristically went to bed at like 2 because my head hurt, and then I uncharacteristically woke up around 6 because my head still hurt, they were still screaming, and I think my dog needed to "relieve" himself.

Also, I think I inhaled like a pound of dog hair while sleeping. Last night, my dog Redd slept in my room, which he normally doesn't cuz he's unhinged and not to be trusted.

Thirdly, I'm sick or somethign and so my sinuses or my nose or something is giving me headaches which I normally don't get.

Fourthly I was damaging my brain yesterday because I realized I have an addiction. Yes, that's right, I am addicted tot eh feeling you get right before and after you hold in a sneeze. You know what I mean, when instead of letting snot fly all over the place you hold it in and run the risk of damaging your mind? Well, for those of you who have never tried it, it's like the giddy-uncontrollable-laughing high for like a second before you "sneeze" and like the dead-no-feeling high for like a second after you "sneeze". Anyways, I'm so addicted that yesterday I was actually inducing sneezes :-)

Fifthly I realized a bunch of things on a bunch of different topics that I really don't wanna get into.

Sixthly, all I had to eat yesterday was 5 Krispy Kreme donuts... Mmmmmm.

-Neil

P.S. I hate smilies

Surv Me

lightningphyre — 2004-01-11T04:01:00-05:00

What is your favorite..
gum:	the basic Orbit flavor
restaurant:	Benihanas
drink:	chocolate martini
season:	fall
type of weather:	breezey with the smell of rain and 2/3 of the sky cloudy
emotion:	umm, happiness?
thing to do on a half day:	Mr. Pickles
late-night activity:	t.v.
sport:	socer or swimming... or polo on horses
city:	Boston
store:	Evangelines Costume Warehouse
When was the last time you..
cried:	I really don't know
played a sport:	Thursday (1/8/04)
laughed:	this morning
hugged someone:	dunno
kissed someone:	like in september
felt depressed:	this morning
felt elated:	this morning
felt overworked:	wednesday
faked sick:	like a month ago
lied:	i lost count, probably this morning
What was the last..
word you said:	wrath
thing you ate:	McDonald's french fry... mmmm
song you listened to:	Firend Is A Four Letter Word - Cake?
thing you drank:	Mr. Pibb
place you went to:	The dog park at phoenix field
movie you saw:	I dunno
movie you rented:	I dunno
concert you attended:	Lol... A concert thing at our church that me and shea's parents made us go to
Who was the last person you..
hugged:	dunno
cried over:	dunno
kissed:	rather not say
danced with:	i dont dance
shared a secret with:	ummm, i forget
had a sleepover with:	my sisters 11 little friends and Corina (lol)
called:	dunno
went to a movie with:	Maybe the gang when we saw ELF, i ahd to sit by myself tho so it counts as no one
saw:	my sister
were angry with:	probly my sister
couldn't take your eyes off of:	rather not say
obsessed over:	rather not say
Have you ever..
danced in the rain:	yes
kissed someone:	yes
done drugs:	um, not the illegal kind
drank alcohol:	yes
slept around:	o yeah
partied 'til the sun came up:	yes
had a movie marathon:	not unles you count my sleepovers in like 4-6th grade
gone too far on a dare:	yes
spun until you were immensely dizzy:	yes
taken a survey quite like this before:	yes, unfortunately

The Favorites, Have-You-Evers.. and Last Times! Oh, the variety! brought to you by BZOINK!

IT IS THE LANGUAGE OF WRATH AND IT SHALL BE SPOKEN!

lightningphyre — 2004-01-11T04:01:00-05:00

The God of Wrath and the Sex Goddess were holding council with the rest of the pantheon when it was decided:

lightniNgphyre: i meant ot say I lurve changing the o in words to ur

And as the sex goddess saw to the heart of the plan she spaketh:

goForKyeRseLF 25: i have a new law to..declare
goForKyeRseLF 25: ahem:
goForKyeRseLF 25: from now on instead of "ok", we shall say "urk," pronounced er-kay when said aloud.
goForKyeRseLF 25: same goes for omg, now urmg

And the pantheon agreed, and Wrath commanded:

lightniNgphyre: ok
lightniNgphyre: it gets complicated
lightniNgphyre: but it is the language of wrath and it shall be spoken!

And Sex cried in jubilation:

goForKyeRseLF 25: yes!

And so the language of Wrath was born...

I Hope You Never Live Like Jack And Sally

lightningphyre — 2004-01-15T08:01:00-05:00

Well, everyone's been posting about Blink 182's new song, so I felt that if I didn't people would look at my blog and be all: What a loser! So here's my entry on I Miss You or I'm Mising You or whatever the hell it's called.

First off, it's not that great. Sure it's okay, but I can tell it's gonna be one of those songs that'll get played a lot and I'll end up hating. You know? And I mean, the guy on KWOD was all: Gawrsh guys, this here jig seems to me like it'll be one heckuva song ya hear? Actually, that's not what he said, but that's what I heard in my head. The only GOOD part of the song is the part about Jack, Sally, and Halloween on Christmas.

Which brings me to my next point. As Caitlin has said, most people don't even know who Jack and Sally are. I mean, come on, everyone knows they are the characters from NBXMAS. Uggh. And it makes me mad when I hear people like singing that part of the song and I ask them if they even know who Jack and Sally are, and they're all: No... And then I go psycho and scream at them, but they are too busy thinking about 'the best song ever' to hear me.

And I'm spent,
Neil

I Lie A Lot

lightningphyre — 2004-01-15T08:01:00-05:00

I had a really good dream last night...

But I dont remember what happened.

I remember waking up, thinking to myself, "Man, that was a good dream." And then like a minute later I had forgotten everything that happened.

I lie a lot.

-Neil

Past Coupla Days

lightningphyre — 2004-01-18T09:01:00-05:00

Well, let's see...

ON Friday I don't remember what happened so that's unimportant.

THEN on Saturday I had to get up at 8:15 to go to water polo. Uggh. And I mean, it didn't even start till 11, but I had tog et up at 8:15...

Also I became obsessed with the coolest toy ever. Astrojax are sooooo cool.

The I spent the night at JImmy's house. I've begun to learn not to do that on Saturday nights because his parents like to take mto church with them at like 8 in the morning on Sundays. Which brings me to today.

TODAY Jimmy's family took me to church, but it was like starting an hour late today so we just left.

Then I had swimming at 11. Water polo has destroyed my technique.

Then my family dragged em to the Harlem Globetrotter "game". I rooted for the other team. It was soo broing I wanted to leave halfway through the first quarter. But what can you do.

-Neil

It's Like My Sister's 'Cookies'

lightningphyre — 2004-01-19T03:01:00-05:00

Man, I've just got a bunch of stuff to say, but none of it's long enough for its own entry.

I've decided that the Latin word I find to be the most fun to say is "Euegepae!"

I think it's funny when people put like angsty, suicidal poems in their blogs. I just laugh.

Haven't sneezed in a while, unfortunately.

My mom thinks she's so great because she hasn't had any diet sodas since New Year's (her resolution)... Of course, she still drinks regular soda.

I was blog hopping, and it reminded me of how much I hate not being able to see who's viewed my blog. But I REFUZE to change to v2.0 Then I got bored.

My friend is too afraid to ask anyone to BV's upcoming dance. And I think, why won't you just ask someone?! They'd probably say yes.

Then I remembered that we'll be working on the Jungle Cruise together in the future. Right after we go to Canada to get my tattoo though. It'll be the Jungle Cruise in Disney Land of course, not Disney World.

Got a new desktop image today. It's super cool. I got it from the Gargoyle section of the Toon Disney website. I apotheosize that show.

I think Caitlin could probably get her mom sent to a asylum for a 72 hour observation period. I know parents can have it done to their kids. Probably the pressure of being observed at loony bin would be enough to make her act crazy and be convicted or whatever its called. Just a suggestion Caitlin is she annoys you too much.

I was thinking abotu St. Patrick's Day and how retarded it is. No one actually cares about him "driving the snakes out of Ireland". Everyone just uses it as an excuse to say they're Irish and drink loads of beer.

The reason this entry is like my sister's 'cookies' is because she'll take any ingredients she can find, from salt to soda; mix them together; and put it in the oven. And then if it kinda solidifies she'll call it a cookie. Normally she gives it some random name like "Katie's Yummy Chocolate Surprise", when really the only chocolate was that fake stuff from those gross mini donuts.

-Neil

Edict # 2

lightningphyre — 2004-01-22T07:01:00-05:00

And the Wrathful One spaketh unto the world of men:

Edict Number Two

-Wrath

(Re)Living the Dream

lightningphyre — 2004-01-22T07:01:00-05:00

I was reliving my childhood today on the internet...

And I rediscovered soem of my favorite websites:

Rathergood.com

A Frightened Boy (at Rathergood)(Gotta love that music)

Muffinfilms

-Neil

Dress Atire

lightningphyre — 2004-01-23T06:01:00-05:00

Weeeeeh.

Today we had dress atire at school because it was teh Martin Luther King Jr. Mass or something. Plus it was a late start... I think all school days should start at 9:30 and get out at 2:20, but oh well.

But anyways, I don't know why but I look forward to dress atire days. For all that don't know, it means we have to wear pants, belt, a nice shirt, and a tie. So today, I wore my black pants, with my black shirt, my black belt, and my NBXMAS tie. Actually, now that I think about it, it wasn't my black shirt.

You see, my mom had teh memory of a goldfish. That's seven seconds by the way. Anyways, MY black shirt has been sitting in the back of the van for over a month waiting for her to dry clean it. Did she... No. So I had to wear my dad's shirt, which had really long sleeves and a monstrous collar. Anyways, the collar was ok and the sleeves looked decent if I rolled them up... But that amde me cold.

And then... As we were driving to school, Neils pops in a cd and the first song up is "I Miss You" or "I'm Missing You" or whatever it's called. If you read regularly, you know how I feel about that. Well at first I thought it was kinda funny since I was wearing my tie, but then it dawned on me: Neils and Tim both probably don't know who Jack and Sally are. Yet here they are singing along under their breaths. I wanted to get mad, but I didn't, I mean, I had to get a ride home.

-Neil

Everything's Covered in Chlorine

lightningphyre — 2004-02-03T07:02:00-05:00

Today was the second day of swimming. I'm glad that it's not as hard as water polo was, but it's still like four times harder than my rec team's practices. Ah well. I haven't washed my hair, and it smells like chlorine. It's kinda making me all giddy and hot and bothered. HA!

Which reminds me, on Monday we took another drug survey in homeroom. ATTENTION! Contrary to popular belief, I am NOT a stoner. The only "drugs" I use are my own sneezes, the occasional sharpie/marker, and the ceramic glue that one time in seventh grade. Oh, and alcohol soemtimes, but that isn't enough to actually state it.

Man, I haven't updated in like 2 weeks, but I haven't got the e-mail reminding me that the staff at mindsay worships me. Huh.

I think the server that hosts my background and banner is broken because I don't see them anymore. Gonna have to fgure that out.

I just revealed my screenname to A Jesuit. Now I'm doomed.

Tomorrow I get my teeth cleaned, so that liek 2 weeks from now I can get spacers in between my molars. Then, about a week after that, I get a mouth full of metal... Yes, braces. Gonna be Jack and Sallying it up though with black bindings or whatever they're called. So I wasn't like wishing for the day to come, but I wasn't dreading it either, until...

Until I was tlaking to ALicia today and I realized I MIGHT END UP WITH A LISP!!!! THAT WOULD BE TERRIBLE!!! She said I wouldn't though.

Which makes me wonder, how do you spell lisp. Is it l-i-s-p, or l-i-t-h-p, or l-i-s-h-p... I think it should be spelled lithp because that would be funnier...

-Neil

A Bunch o' Crap

lightningphyre — 2004-02-05T09:02:00-05:00

Today I tripped on the stairs on my way to sixth perio and fell down. I am not proud, yet I am not ashamed. Actually, I was lucky, because somehow me and my friends avoided teh rsuh on the stairs, so they were the only ones to see my fall and I didn't get trampled...

I hate Theology so much. I don't see why I have to learn it. And then Mr. McRae goes and asks us a trillion questions about our Powerpoint. Granted, I didn't actually do much work making it, but I answered practically everyone of his questions, making it up on the spot because my group didn't understand what they had typed.

Then I had swimming, again... It will take over my life with the schedule they haev planned for us. I'll pretty much be in the pool until November. BUt they had the blocks in today, which made me happy, because I like scOOp diving.

I watched Survivor and CSI tonight. I'm still really mad that they got rid of Tina, but I wanted Rudy to leave because he's old and his foot was screwed up. And then CSI was cool because it had vampires.

I fixed my blog today. The date and stuff was all messed up so I realized it was because my computer's clock was wrong. I wonder hwo that happened.

-Neil

Poll

lightningphyre — 2004-02-08T05:02:00-05:00

Even On the Weekend School Tortures Me

lightningphyre — 2004-02-08T06:02:00-05:00

Today was the Father/Son Communion Lunch. For all you lucky people who don't go to Jesuit, it's where students and their dads go to abig room, say some sappy stuff during mass, and eat lunch... On a day otherwise reserved for NOT being involved with school. Uggh.

Anyways, I had to get up at 8:30. I almost ate my soap in the shower because I was dreaming or something and thought it was chocolate. Don't ask me why.

So then we drove all the way to whatever college it was held at. I forget teh name. It's like teh one with Sacramento in teh name. I'm retarded.

I ended up sitting by Michael, Wiley, Joe, kinda near Cameron and some other people.

The one good thing about today was the food was okay, there was chocolate pie for desert, and I GOT TO WEAR MY PINEAPPLE TIE!!! Is it spelle dtie or tye... I think it's tie.

Anyways that's about it. Other than villagephotos is pissing me off with their miniscule daily bandwidth rate. I mean, how are all you wonderful people supposed to be able to see my banner and background.

Which reminds me. If anyone can find a website that allows free remote image hosting, or is willing to host two images for me, PLEASE TELL ME!

-Neil

I Hate...

lightningphyre — 2004-02-10T08:02:00-05:00

Being Bored (hence this entry)

Numerous people from numerous classes who I don't even know but who I hate

Not being able to convey one of those funny insidejokish kinda voices with only words on a blog

When people criticize the difference between the and teh

When my milk gets stuck in the milk machine

Only having part of the upcoming week off with my BV friends (but I LOVE having an extra week off at Easter)

The vomit/dog shit smell on the walkway by the Art Studio

Being tired

Sleeping

White fan-blades

My sister

Smileys (not so much the :-) kind but the actual picture kind)

When people assume they know what I mean

Beans of any type

Theolgy with McRae ( possibly theology in general)

Teachers who think they are God's gift to the education system

When the computers aren't working at school

Not having a personal army

PEOPLE WHO WON'T BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP ME!

-Neil

You Won't Like Me When I'm Angry

lightningphyre — 2004-02-18T07:02:00-05:00

EEEEARRRRGGGGHHHHH!

I hate the new Update Blog page. Lemme break it down to you:

I was typing this really great entry, adn it was kinda long too, but long in a good way. When I decided, "Hmm, I think I want to add my current music." So I pressed the link that lets you do all that stuff, not worrying because the old way kept all the stuff you wrote in the box you wrote it in when you pressed that link. But you know what the new version does?!?! It deletes it all!!!! I got really angrya dn actually yelled at the computer, which made my mom angry becaus eshe was trying to sleep. Uggh.

But I guess I'll tell you what I was typing about anyways, ina condesned version of course. Well, I was tlaking about ahving dinner witht the Berrios' last night at a chinese restaurant, making everybody laugh until they cried, going to Facotry 2 U and buying a bunch of stuff for crazy low prices, and, last but not least, the Incredible Hulk.

-Neil

Relief and Regret

lightningphyre — 2004-02-19T10:02:00-05:00

Oh thank god they've gotten rid of all those buttons.

I got my spacers today. I must say that I no longer am enthusiastic about this whole orrthooodonnnchhhaaaaa thing anymore. I get my braces on Wednesday.

-Neil

WRATH!

lightningphyre — 2004-02-24T09:02:00-05:00

I am so angry, for sooo many reasons.

Firstly, my braces came on today. Now that's not so bad, until I realized that teh brackets are the self locking kind so I don't get to choose a niftacular color everytime I go to the orthodontist. That pissed me off a lot.

Then Nick kept running into my feet while swimming for liek the fifth day in a row. It's a simple little thing but it annoys me so much. It wouldn't help to have him go in front of me because I'm faster and I'm already swimming super slow because these idiot juniors demand ot go first. Of ocurse, it might help if he actually waited 5 seconds after I leave the wall to push off.

And lastly is this dull ache I feel in my teeth. Everyoen told me that I owuld be in so much pain, but really I'm not. I'd prefer the pain though. The ache doesn't hurt, but it's so annoying that it's driving me insane. I constantly bite down to actually put my mouth in pain, because it's more tolerable than the ache.

I'll try to put a picture up of my new teeth jewelery as soon as possible.

-Neil

Attention Worshippers

lightningphyre — 2004-03-05T09:03:00-05:00

I, the Wrathful God, have found theme songs for all you worshippers out there:

"Ether" - Nothingface
"Slavery" - Spineshank

Memorize them, sing them, praise me!

My Computer

lightningphyre — 2004-03-11T05:03:00-05:00

My computer is mentally retarded so I haven't been able to use it for a long time. Because of that, all you people miussed out on exciting events that happened in my life.

The thing I hate most about braces is not ebing able to chew my fingernails.

We Will Show Them A Love They Can Never Destroy...

lightningphyre — 2004-03-23T08:03:00-05:00

Hmm...

I kept meaning to update since Sunday, but I haven't found the time. Anyways, I saw Batboy: The Musical at school. IT WAS SOOO COOL. It had a really wierd ending but it was good. I'd see it again.

Today in English I laughed so hard at this kid I hate. He's like this fat wierdo loaner that says the stupidest things. Anyways, today someone told him to run because he had to go to his locker and he said, "I can't run." So someone else told him to 'waddle'. Everyone started laughing but I laughed so hard that I started crying. So anyways, while he was gone, everyone started pointing at me because I was laughing.

Why, you ask? Because it has been established for a while in English that I take great delight in other's misfortunes. What can I say, it's true...

Oh yeah. I am now officially the bassist for the band called "The Mr. Witucki Experience". The only problem is I've never touched a bass before in my life. Ah well, I'll fake it.

I have to go wind down so I can fall asleep at nine. Normally I wouldn't be able to but if I drink enough special sleepy tea and take some emdication, I can soemtimes pull it off. Why nine o'clock? Because I get to get up at 5:20 tomorrow. Swim. Early. Cold. Fun.

-Neil

Conformity and Peer Pressure

lightningphyre — 2004-03-23T08:03:00-05:00

I'm such a conformist and such a victim to peer pressure that I just had to put one of these stupid things in my blog (because everyone else had one):

Does your life suck? by nomigusta
Name/username/nick?
Age?
Before you were born...	Everyone couldn't wait to see you.
After birth...	You punched the doctor.
First 5 years...	You got presents every damn day.
Currently...	You're pregnant.
Does it suck?	Yes

Created with quill18's MemeGen 3.0!

Damn. I'm pregnant. I don't want kids. I guess I'll be able to feed them breast milk though. HA! (Some of you should understand that)

-Neil

I Like the Rain

lightningphyre — 2004-03-25T05:03:00-05:00

It is raining. I am happy. Therefore, we can guess that the rain makes me happy. That is, if we assume the first two statements are related, which they are.

Hmm, stuff happened today. To start off, it took me like 20 minutes to get dressed today. Why? Because we had dress attire today. Why? Because we had executive council elections today. Anyways, normally it doesn't take me that long even on dress attire days, but I couldn't roll my left sleeve up right, and I just had to because I was really hot.

But then I got outside, and it was cold. Hmmm.

So school was ok, until the election. Because our gym is currentyl being decorated for the P.A.C.E. auction, we had to have the assembly in our pool ampitheater thingy. It was raining. I like the rain. But not being in the rain. They eventually decided to just have us all go back to homeroom and listen to the speeches over the P.A. system. Good idea for two (2) reasons:

1.) All of the freshman, sophomores, juniors ~~and seniors~~ got to try and force their way through the two tiny openings in the fence as fast as possible. It was great, but then Mr. Warren started yelling and it became only good.

2.) We got to get out of the rain.

So we got out of school, about 15 minutes early (12:00). So everyone was messing around o n the pool deck waiting for the coches to show up, but they never did, so that was wicked awesome.

Then me mam took me to the Wells-Fargo in Raley's and we set up my bank account. Super. And I got a Slamson bank, which was unexpected.

Also, yesterday we had a swim meet against Franklin (?). Suffice it to say we won. I was ahppy because all I had to swim wad the 100 Free. I took two seconds off my time, which wa sunexpected.

-Neil

O.Y. - No school tomorrow! Woop! But swimming... Affirmative

Pictures

lightningphyre — 2004-03-25T06:03:00-05:00

I've done this before, but I think I finally got the pictures fixed.

O.Y. There is now a super secret message hidden on my blog. Be the first to find and win a prize. (Only if I actually know you)

LATIN!!!!!

lightningphyre — 2004-03-25T10:03:00-05:00

Latin... Ah, the beautiful language. Or, for the more hip and happening students of Mr. Witucki's class, ther'es Latish. The beautiful cross between Latin and English. So I just had to take this test:

Postatem obscuri lateris nescitis.
"You do not know the power of the Dark
Side." There are two possibilities: you
are a Star Wars geek, or you are unreasoningly
scary.

Which Weird Latin Phrase Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

So true, so true. Not the Star Wars part, the other part.

Day Off

lightningphyre — 2004-03-26T04:03:00-05:00

Ah... Nothing like a good Friday off. Unles you have swimming to spoil it.

So I really didn't want to go to swimming today, but we were gonna have to give Dewey a ride home so I just went with it. But when we got to the school at like 8:30 (Practice starts at 9), the only people there were Dewey and Brad.

So we all thought maybe the coaches ditched us again, since they ahd never actually told anyone to come today. Bored out of our minds, we went and just sat in the car for like 15 minutes. Almost about to give up, we thought we should probably at least check the pool again to make sure no one had somehow gotten past us without our noticing.

We were walking towards the pool and we noticed the gate was open. Oh shit. But we decided to just take a peek over the edge to make sure the whole team wasn't down there. The whole team wasn't. In fact, no one was, except Coach Robbins. And Rockin Robbin wasn't so rockin anymore, cuz he was looking right up at the gate. We had been caught.

Long story short, it only ended up being us and three other people showing up. So we got in with the assurance of an easy practice and a bonus attendance point. Even longer story short, it ended up being 13 people.

It was actually a hella fun practice, I wish they were all like that.

-Neil

The Real Me?

lightningphyre — 2004-03-30T09:03:00-05:00

Get to know the REAL you by crash_and_burn
Your Name
You Are A:	Prep
Your Favorite Band/Song	Garth Brooks - Thunder Rolls
You Like To Read:	Cheap porn
You Firmly Believe In:	Orange juice
Everyone Thinks You Are:	A sleazy prostitute
You Were Conceived:	Underwater
You Will Marry:	Your half-sister/brother

Created with quill18's MemeGen 3.0!

It's Like A Potluck

lightningphyre — 2004-04-02T03:04:00-05:00

Let's see. I haven't updated in alooong time because I have actually been really behind on my homework this week. Uggh. That remind me.

I wrote like a four page essay at like 10 last night on a subject I hate with a passion: Beowulf. I didn't even know what I was gonna write as my thesis until last night. Luckily I read some of it today in class and Mr. Hornback thought it was brilliant. Better than Michael Driscoll's, better than Jay's (not really surprized), and most probably better than the fat kid, the little kid, and the kid who I associate with puke/diarreah green...

I wasn't able to watch this week's OC because of HOMEWORK, but I taped it so I'll watch it later.

Tonight's Frosh/Soph, should be fun. We're going to Mikuni's but that'll be interesting because I don't know three of the people that will be there (out of eight).

Spring Break: finally. HA! I get two weeks off, as opposed to everyone at B.V. BUt it actually kinda sucks because what am I gonna do while you're in school? Oh, that's right, swim.

Practice is gonna be from 10-12... Uggh. At least they are only four days a week over break, and I get to miss the whole first week. I'll be swimming at night with my rec team though so I can get partial attendance credit.

I get to miss the first week cuz of driver's ed. Fun, but not fun... Probly won't know anybody. My mom said I might...

!!! Go to Ratemyteachers.com. I just rated a bunch of teacher sfrom Jesuit and Carnegie. Pretty fun.

-Neil

Comfort and Joy, Comfort and Joy

lightningphyre — 2004-04-05T08:04:00-05:00

Hmnm...

Frosh-Soph was fun, got my card taken away, theng ot it back.

Rented League of Extraordinary Gentleman last night.

Started Driver's Ed today. I think Marissa is in my class.

Bought Batboy Soundtrack... Next up, the book!

Swam.

-Neil

P.S. Will elaborate on everything later.

Lots O' Stuff

lightningphyre — 2004-04-19T08:04:00-05:00

I haven't updated in a long time. Lots of stuff happened over Easter vacation but I can't really remember most of it. I'll try and give yout he highlights.

Driver's Ed = Uber boring

Trip to San Francisco and Santa Cruz resulted in me buying a Punk/Anarchy Duck to accompany my Devil Duckie.

Trip to optometrist last Thursday resluted in me placing an order for glasses, which I only have to wear in very extreme circumstances.

I finally got my Bat Boy book. I thought it was actually gonna be a book, but it's just a script. It's still cool though.

And yesterday was my half-birthday, as I so unfortunately found out today. I was so upset that I missed it. I was gonna actually celebrate it. Well, anyways, I am now officially 15 1/2 years and 1 day old.

-Neil

P.S. Katie D. and Vanessa came to my house a couple of times. They're gay.

Listen To My Current Music
(For those with Windows Media Player)

Bored

lightningphyre — 2004-04-19T08:04:00-05:00

Instructions.
1. copy this whole list into your journal.
2. bold the things that are true about you.
3. anything you don't bold is false

01. When I was younger I made some bad decisions.
02. I don't watch much TV these days.
03. I love psychodelic mushrooms.
04. I love sleeping.
05. I have loads of books.
06. I once slept in a toilet.
07. I love playing video games.
08. I ADORE marijuana.
09. I watch porn movies.
10. I watch them with my father.
11. I like sharks.
12. I love spiders.
13. I was born without hair and I still have no hair.
14. I like George Bush.

15. People are cool.
16. I have changed a lot mentally over the last year.
17. I have jacuzzi and a Porsche.
18. I have a lot to learn.
19. I carry my knife everywhere with myself.
20. I'm really really smart.
21. I've never broken someone's bones.
22. I have a secret.
23. I hate snow.
24. I drink only milk.

25. Punk rock rules.
26. I hate Bill Gates!
27. I love Chinese food.
28. I would hate to be famous.
29. I am not a morning person.
31. I don't need glasses.
32. I have potential.
33. I only have one race.
34. My legs are two different sizes.
35. I have a twin.
37. I can ramble on about absolutely nothing.
38. I'm left-handed.
39. I hate llamas, but I'm one of them.
40. I don't like horror movies.
41. I suck at climbing, but I love it anyway.
42. People hate me usually.
43. I like pop music.
45. I HATE parking fines.
46. I know the National Anthem of my country by heart.
47. I know more than two languages.

48. I spend too much time on my computer.
49. I often want to throw my computer out the window.
50. I live on the first floor.
51. I don't like chocolate.
52. I'd like to be more original.
53. I've lied before.
54. Cocks are my favorite birds.
55. I want to conquer the world.
56. I wonder what happens when you die.

58. I want to eat your dog.
59. I love to exercise.
60. I hate science with a passion.
61. I like to write.
62. I like changes.
63. I hate going to class.
64. I am afraid to die.
65. I hate dish washing.
66. My hair is long, brown, and curly.
67. My nails are nine inches long.
68. One of my favorite colors is black.
69. I like to sleep on the floor.
70. I am hopeless at cooking.
71. I sucked my thumb when I was little.
72. I should be doing something else rather than writing this.
73. I am online alot, but not on AOL.
74. I hate government.
75. I don't have a girlfriend.

76. I'm too nice for my own good.
77. I love to read, I read as much as I can.
78. I don't trust newspapers.
79. I sometimes like arguing.
80. I live in a lagoon.
81. I clean my room once a month.
82. I'm scared of american fast food.
83. I am prying open my third eye.
84. I love Mozambique.
85. I don't trust any religion.
86. I used to play with barbies.
87. I wanted to be a super hero when I was little.
88. I like listening to wind chimes.
89. I'm very disorganized.
90. My hair is long and straight.
91. I learn a lot.
92. I don't like spicy food.
93. I keep a diary.
94. I can't do cartwheels.
95. I am very lazy.
96. I'm sarcastic.
97. I think my hair is annoying.
98. I'm very emotional. more than i used to be

HAIR!

lightningphyre — 2004-04-19T08:04:00-05:00

This is for people who haven't yet seen my long hair. This isn't even how it looks when it looks good. It's all screwed up because this picture was taken after swimming, and the chlorine does something to my hair. But you can get the general idea.

Why bother washing off all the dirt,/If I am still unclean?

lightningphyre — 2004-04-23T09:04:00-05:00

Woah.

I got glasses. Only need them for far away things and only haev to wear them some times. I haven't gotten them adjusted yet so one side is higher than the other.

Woah.

Getting a hair cut this weekend. Only 1/2 an inch though. Heh.

This week was preety good and went a lot faster than I expected it to, seeing as it was the first week back after spring break.

Yesterday was by far the best of all the days. [Short swim practice and RED.z(don't even ask)]

Tonight is the MOther-Son dance. As you can tell I'm not there. I did go out to dinner with a bunch of my friends and there moms before hand though. It was fun. Too bad we didn't get the special fortune cookies... Heh.

-Neil

Chicken Soup for the Romantic Soul

lightningphyre — 2004-04-23T09:04:00-05:00

1) Grab the nearest book.
2) Open the book to page 23.
3) Find the fifth sentence.
4) Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

"I rolled my eyes at that."

I like that sentence.

Omnia

lightningphyre — 2004-04-24T01:04:00-05:00

Omnia means everything.

The 6 button on my cell phone is like kinda stuck or something so I have to push it really hard to get it to work.

Whenever I need to talk to someone on AIM they're never online. Speaking of that, only five of the people on my buddylist are online right now, three of them are me, ones a robot, and I hate the other person.

I think I wanna try and start a new trend on Mindsay. It probably won't work, but you can't blame me for trying.
Anywyas, here's hwo it will work:
It'll be like on AIM where some people have stuff in their profiles like "If you love Jesus put this in your profile." It'll be the exact same as this but instead of "put this in your profile", we'll say "post this in your blog."

Here are some to start the craze:

If you think the Trix rabbit should slap those annoying little kids silly, post this in your blog.

If you think spoons are sexy, post this in your blog.

If you got mad love for Chernabog, post this in your blog.

-Neil

WADDLE AND DIE JOE!!!!

lightningphyre — 2004-04-24T08:04:00-05:00

I was watching GOdzilla 3 or something on Sci-Fi channel when I thought to myself, this movie kinda sucks. But then I saw a commercial that made it all worth while. It was a commercial reminding me that next Thursday is the two hour season finale of Mad Mad House. I love that show. I can't wait. I expecially like this last one because Loana got the necklaces fromt he alts.

Also, I ound a word to describe what is commonly talkedabout in Mr. Hornback's class (my delight in others agony): scheidenfreude. It means joy found in others misfortune. I heard it on the Best Week Ever, I don't rememember what they were talking about though.

Money Problems

lightningphyre — 2004-04-25T04:04:00-05:00

I just spent about half an hour trying to log into my account on WellsFargo.com but I think i must have typed my username in wrong when I created it because it wouldn't let me sign in. So I can't fix it until I find out my social security number, which'll be a while cuz my mom's asleep. Uggh.

And then I created an account on my iTunes so now I can actually buy music. So I just downloaded the Maroon 5 album. But now I wanna see how much money I have in my checking account because I don't wanna overdraw from my savings account. It's all so involved. ...

-Neil

Today (And a Little About Tomorrow)

lightningphyre — 2004-04-25T04:04:00-05:00

Weee. I got to spend like 2 hours at Jesuit for church and fraternising with my retarded "big brother". Fun. Not. I always get sick in mass. It must be God's attempt to make me see the light. I hate those little wafer things you get for communion.

I got a haircut today. Don't get too excited ALicia and Caitlin. It was only like 3/4 inches. Or at least that's what it was supposed to be. I think she took off mroe like 1 to 1,1/2 inches. It's still good though. I bought some new shampoo and conditioner though, cuz I can only get it at Great Clips. Mmm, Citrus Mint-y goodness.

Tomorrow is Board Short day or something at school for Spirit Week. I think they're gonna have the raft race or the belly flop contest or something. i don't knwo if the board shorts are just o wear, or to swim in, or what. I should wear my speedos to school to spite them. SPITE! I think Wednesday is Hawaiain shirt day. Hawaiains don't actually wear Hawaaiin shirts.

-Neil

P.S. HOLY SHIT! I jsut learned about the Mindsy Fortune thing. Woah...

I Thought That I Heard You Laughing, I Thought That I Heard You Sing, I Think I Saw You Try

lightningphyre — 2004-04-26T07:04:00-05:00

Fucking A! It is soo damn hot. I hate the heat more than everything else. Whenever summer rolls around, I wanna slit my wrists. Everyone's all, "Yay! Summer! Let's go get high and sweaty!" I'd much rather wear a sweatshirt and still be cold in the middle of late fall, but what can I do.

Anyways, I was looking forward to swimming today because it was so hot. We had the Belly Flop contest and the Raft Race today. Bobby and Pat both suck at belly flops. Us freshman almost beat the seniors at the raft race, but some faggot I'd never seen before slowed us down.

Tomorrow is Hawaiin shirt day. I've got a red one I'm gonna wear, but I'm gonna wear my swim shirt under it so I can take it off if no one else wears one.

I get to miss Global Studies tomorrow and hopefully some of Theology because I have to get ym glasses adusted. 'Twill be grand.

Swim practice was easy and short today. So we got out early because of that. I was happy. RED.z

-Neil

P.S. WOAH! I just felt like this tickling sensation on my arm and I din't know what it was so I started freaking out. Turns out ti was the biggest mosquito eater I have ever seen. IT WAS HUGE!

Spirit Week - Part Dos

lightningphyre — 2004-04-27T06:04:00-05:00

Ever since we got back from Easter Vacation, life at school has just been really good. Not really for any special reason, just one of those things, you know?

Today I got to miss all of first block, Global Studies, because I got my glasses adjusted so they fit my head just right. So me and my mom got to school in the middle of passing period between first block and second block, Theology. I didn't want to walk to the dean's office with her while everyone was out of class so we waited until the bell rang for second block.

So I walked into Theology with my glasses on. Ray made a half-hearted wisecrack. The doc said I only need to wear my glasses sometimes but I ended up wearing them all day.

I wore a Hawaiin shirt today, because we were supposed to, but only like 12 other kids throughtout the whole school did. Frosh beat sophomores in volleyball, because we were set up to lose against the seniors, like always.

Tomorrow is the Car Show, but everyone knows the real action will be at the English 1 XL vs. Double English basketball game. We're gonna kick those Double English kid's asses.

My English class all found out today about my and my accomplices plan to build a tiger trap and teach that teacher who rides an electric scooter a lesson.

In Latin, I got my Maximus Cum Laude certificate and my silver medal, cuz I am so smart. I also heard someone playing the Pink Panther theme song on a saxaphone, which was cool.

Ever notice how Harry Potter celebrates Christmas, but not Easter?

-Neil

CHOCOLATE!!!!!

lightningphyre — 2004-04-27T09:04:00-05:00

WOAH!

I heard that Tim Burton is gonna direct a remake of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"!

As if that wouldn't be wicked enough, supposedly JOhnny Depp is gonna play Willy Wonka. He'd be really good at that role, cuz he was really good at Cpt. Jack Sparrow.

I hope Burton uses real midgets. And they're skin has to be orange, they have to have white eyebrows, and green hair. Or else...

-Neil

Spirit Week - Part Tres

lightningphyre — 2004-04-28T06:04:00-05:00

I was all pumped to watch the basketball game today, but unfortunately it has been postponed until next Thursday. Oh well, that gives me more time to spread rumors about our secret weapon and our secret play. The secret weapon will be "Scheidenfreude", which they won't know the meaning of, and the secret play will be codenamed something tot he effect of "Kick and Laugh". Heh. My special play.

The car show was stupid. Lots of old cars, which I don't like. There were also two bands playing, neither of which were very good. We got a hotdog, which I gave a way, and a warm canned Coke, which tasted funny.

Tomorrow is Color Day with Dodgeball. I'm gonna wear all black, since it's our class colour donchaknow. I decided I'm gonna start using "u"s to spell words whenever I can.

Coach Fitch went even more insane than normal today and kicked us out of the pool at about 3:15. I knew something bad was gonna happen when I saw him start slamming his clipboard on the block. Tomorrow I have to shave for the meet on Friday, both of which will be an experience.

Something else good happened, but I can't remember what. Hmm.

-Neil

Dissapearing Act

lightningphyre — 2004-05-02T12:05:00-05:00

Ok, here's the dillio.

I'm at a friend's house all week because my parents are in Hawaii. So, I may not be able to update this very often, go on AIM, or anything like that. Do not worry,not that any of you would.

Anyways, if you have to get a hold of me (which probly won't happen) and you don't go to Jesuit, ask someone for my cell phone number. I'm not gonna pput it here, because I'm not stupid.

Oh yeah, this guy's parental controls let me go to allpartsof mindsay except for the actula blog, which is kinda stupid...

-Neil

Swim Champs

lightningphyre — 2004-05-02T01:05:00-05:00

Thursday night made me upset. Why? Because I spent like an hour and a half in the shower and missedmost of the finale of a really cool show. Why? Because I had to shave my legs, arms, and arm pits. Why? Swim Champs.

I am so glad I am not a girl. It took me forever and I am so glad I don't have to do it on a regular basis. But now my legs itch and my arm pits hurt realllll bad.

Anyways, at least we got to get out of school at 10:40 on Friday to go to Folsom. But I only swam in two events and it took forever. I did final in the 100 Breaststroke and get a section qualifying time, though, which made me happy because only four guys got to swim in finals. I qualified with a prelim time of 1.11.15 and swam a 1.10.43 in finals. Pretty fast.

-Neil

This Last Week

lightningphyre — 2004-05-08T07:05:00-05:00

God damn.

I hated having to come home so much today. This past week at Brad's was real fun. Except for Chris shooting me and Brad deleting my essay.

It was so much better than living at my house. I would gladly live there for long periods of time. No stupid ten year old sister. No praents nagging me, although that would come in time as they grew used to me.

On the topic of the opposite sex: Brad dragged me to his youth group, which was okay since they didn't do anything religious. But there was this one girl who we later learned had become obsessed with me even though I didn't say a word ot her. Then there was last night. Brad's sister had catillion (no idea how to spell that word), and so there were like five million girls at her house getting ready. I have no comfirmation, but I think I got a look or two, which is okay since some of them were good looking.

While the girls were at catillion, Chris, Jack, Keller, and I went to see Van Helsing. Very good movie, don't believe the critics. Brad was at some stupid River Cats game. Then after that we met the girls at Leatherby's. Like eevery Catholic school kid for miles around was there. Very wierd group of kids.

This week I also talked about things I've never talked about before with Brad, Chris, and Brad's mom. Not deep emotional things, but little crazy wierd things that happen in my brain.

I want food but I'm too lazy to get it. Good stuff happened over the week, but I can't remember what.

-Neil

It Was Blue!

lightningphyre — 2004-05-19T09:05:00-05:00

This is gonna be random to kinda get back in the blogging groove.

Anyways, I got one of those annoying e-mails telling me I hadn't update din over a week. It was because my internet connection was messed up. Anyways, I was thinking, they say they miss us in the e-mail, yet they send us a generic form letter... What's up with that?

I read Alicia's post on something from Loveline, and it reminded me of a recent experience I had with the program. The title of this entry is dedicated to Colin. I haven't listened to Loveline in a couple months, so I think I'm gonna start again tonight.

Tomorrow begins Reptitions. I definitely need to study my Latin. School is over next Thursday. I'm actually kinda upset.

Swim trials on Sat. Should be fun. Zach and Colin might show up.

Anime Yearbook: Not a big fan.

-Neil

These Things Take Time

lightningphyre — 2004-05-19T09:05:00-05:00

I love these things:

1.) Name? Neil
2.) Birthday? Oct 18
3.) Zodiac Sign? Libra
4.) Gender? Male
5.) What time is it? 9:18 p.m
6.) Are you sensitive? Umm, emotionally or physically?
**Person Who Last
7.) Called you? My mommay
8.) Slept in your bed? Me
9.) Saw you cry? Dunno
10.) Made you cry? I dunno
11.) Instant message you? Claire (not on purpose)
12.) You shared a drink with? Don't know, Zach probably took some of my Powerade
13.) You went to the movies with? Colin and John
14.) Went to the mall with? Mom or Dewey
15.) Yelled at you? Don't Know
16.) Sent you an e-mail? I only get e-mails from iTunes and comments from Mindsay
**Have You Ever
17.) Taken a picture of yourself with a milk moustache and sent it to the milk people? No
18.) Figured out where the real number 18 is? WHAT?
19.) Gotten into a fight with your Dog/Cat? Yes
20.) Been to New York? Yes
21.) Been to Florida? Yes
22) California? Representing
23.) Hawaii? Yes
24.) Mexico? Yes
25.) China? No
26.) Canada? Yes
27.) Danced Naked? Doen the Robot in the shower to System of a Down (lololololol)
28.) Had a dream about something really crazy, then it happens the next day? Yes
29.) Stalked someone? No
30.) Had a mud bath? No
31.) Wished you were the opposite sex? No
32.) Had an imaginary friend? You already asked
33.) What time is it now? 9:22 p.m
34.) apples or bananas? Apples
35.) Blue or red? Blue (Player 2 Baby)
36.) Backstreet boys or nsync? Nsync
37.) Walmart or target? Target
38) Fall or spring? Fall
39.) Santa or Rudolph? Rudolph
40.) What are you gonna do after you finish this? Go look up my name
41.) What was the last thing you ate? Some freaky pie thing
42.) High school or college? Haven't been to college yet
44.) How many of your buddies are online? 18 if you don't count my 3 sns
45.) Last movie you saw? Troy
46.) Last noise you heard? Music from computer speakers
47.) Last smell you sniffed? Shampoo
**About Your Friends
48.) Laughs the weirdest? Nick Rotas
49.) Going to have the most kids? I have no clue
50.) Who have you known the longest? Probably Ian Worden, but of people I'm friends with, Vanessa Cunningham
51.) Loudest? Probably Me ( :) )
52.) Is the quietest? Keller?
53.) Will fill this out and send it back the soonest? Not doing this over e-mail
54.) Who is the funniest? Shit, I dunno
55.) Who is the moodiest? Don't know
56.) Who is the smartest? Dunno
57.) Biggest player? Brad tries
58.) Who can you tell most of your secrets to? Katie, Vanessa sometimes
59.) Who do you usually go to about all of your problems? Katie
60.) Name your best bud? I have so many and it really depends on the day
61.) Last time you went out of state? November?
62.) Lucky #? 3 or 9 (sometimes 6)
63.) Things you like in a girl/guy? Physical qualities
**Skipped Questions..
67.) What do you think about Ouija Boards? Real under right circumstances
68.) What books are you reading? Taliesin, Harry Potter 5 (like third time), should eb reading The Reivers
69.) What are your nicknames? Nail from Vanessa, Muller when Blake wants to piss me off, not any real ones though
70.) Hair Color: Brown, natural highlights from sun
71.) Height: about 5' 7" ?
72.) Pets? Dog and cat
73.) Siblings? Unfortunately
74.) Been so drunk you blacked out? Not that I remember
75.) Taken any illegal substances? Umm, not that I remember
76.) Gone out in public in your pajamas? Yes
79.) Kept a secret from everyone? Yes
80.) Had a crush on a teacher? God no
82.) Been on stage? Yes
**Favorites
83.) Shampoo? American Crew (Original or Citrus Mint)
84.) Soap? I hate soap
85.) Color? Green or extreme Black
86.) Summer/Winter? Winter fo' sho'
87.) Satin or Lace? Satin
88.) Cartoon Character: Zim, Brooklyn, Bronx, Daria
**In The Last 2 Weeks, Have You…
90.) Cut your hair? No
91.) Worn a skirt? No
92.) Been mean? Every day biotch
93.) Been sarcastic? Every day
94.) Talked to someone you had a crush on? Yes
95.) Hugged someone? Yes
96.) Fought with your parents? Only three second fights
97.) Wished upon a star? No, but I will tonight
98.) Laughed until you cried? Yes
99.) Played Truth or Dare? No
101.) Went to the beach at night? No, I hate the beach
102.) Spent quality time alone? Yes
103.) Ate a meal? Yes
104.) Are you lonely? Not most of the time
105.) Are you happy? Yeah
106.) Are you talking to someone online? Yes
**Do You Believe In…
108.) Love? Depends
109.) The Closet Monster? Only after seeing the Ring for the first time in theaters at like 12 at night
111.) The Big Bang Theory? More likely than any religious creation theory
112.) Heaven/Hell? No
113.) Superstitions? Yes
**You Again!
114.) Who named you? My parents
115.) When was the last time you showered? This morning
116.) What are you wearing right now? Shoes, socks, boxers, shorts, belt, shirt
117.) What song are u listening to right now? Innervios by System of a Down
118.) What was the last thing that you said online? "well, i think i see u, but i dont know if its u, or not"
119.) What is right next to you? All sorts of shit
120.) What is your computer desk made of? I think it's fake wood
121.) What are the last 4 digits in your phone number? 1666 Ahahaha
121) Where do you want to go on your honeymoon? Some place expensive
122) How's the weather right now? Okay, wish it was colder with rain and clouds
123) What did you do last night? Wrote an essay, read, slept
124) How are you today? Tired, my mouth tastes bad
125) How do you eat an Oreos? I drown it in milk until its almost falling apart then place it all in my mouth and let it dissolve
126) What makes you happy? Normal stuff, odd stuff
153) Who makes you happy? Lots of people
127) What makes you mad? People saying OMG just like that in real life when not on the internet, stupidity, the Penguin, the Diarreah green boy, a bunch of other people and things
154) Who makes you mad? Stupid people
128) What do you want to be when you grow up? I have no clue
129.) What are your future goals? Make lots of money, get married to either someone extremely rich, hot, or both, have no kids, die peacefully in my sleep or by drowning
130.) My fave music? Rock
131.) Favorite Food? Benihanas
132.) Favorite movie(s)? Underworld, NBXMAS, Pirates of teh Carribean
133.) Fave guys cologne? Bod Really Ripped Abs (what I used to wear)
134.) Are you too shy to ask someone out? Not if I wanted to
135.) Fav clothes brand? umm, stuff at Pac Sun
136.) If you could change your name what would it be? I dunno, maybe Aisling (is that a boy's name?)
137.) Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? I have a bunch of them in my room, but I don't sleep with them
138.) What is the stupidest thing you have ever done? Please don't ask
139.) Whats ur fav. drink? Good water, Snapple Elements Rain
140.) Do you like scary or happy movies better? Depends
141.) On the phone or in person? Phone is too much work
142.) Lust or Love? Screw love, choose lust
143.) What time is it now? 9:40 p.m
144.) Do you want your friends to write back? ???
145.) Who's the best boss ever? Dunno
146.) Who's your favorite gymnast? No idea
147.) Favorite coach? Coach Robbins
148.) Most accident prone? Me
150.) Who has the most groupies? I do, believe it or not
151.) Thing you hate the most? Eric, stupidity, teacher-ass-kissing
152.) Time now? 9:42 p.m

Quizzes and, um, Stuff?

lightningphyre — 2004-05-21T02:05:00-05:00

You are So and So. You're smart. And boys like you.
This makes your friends jealous. You look soooo
good.

Which Teen Girls Squad Member are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Nope, you don't have a drop of english blood in your body. In fact, you're probably American ;) Y'know that little island next to France? Y'know...Europe? No? Ohwell. We love you really - have a cucumber sandwich!

How British are you?

this quiz was made by alanna

How random are you?

this quiz was made by alanna

Thirty spokes are joined at the nave to make a wheel
But it is the space between that lets it function
Lumps of clay are fashioned into a vessel
But it is the emptiness within that renders it useful
Doors and windows are cut to build a room
But it is the enclosure that furnishes a shelter
As we benefit from that which exists,
Let us recognise the utilty of that which does not.

- From the 'Tao Te Ching' by Lao Zi

What Makes You Sexy? by eva71
Name/NickName
Gender
Sexy Body Part Is	Your Ears
Special Talents Are	Everything (Multi-talented)

Created with the ORIGINAL MemeGen!

What kind of anime charater do you look and are like? by chipmunkie
Name
age
hair color	med. purple
eye color	light blue
weapon of choise	fists
your pet	kitten

Created with the ORIGINAL MemeGen!

Oh how I love kittens....

How do you fit 1000 babies into a phone booth?

With a blender.

How do you get them out again?

With a bag of chips.

Finally

lightningphyre — 2004-06-09T08:06:00-05:00

COMPUTER = FIXED!

In case you've been wondering (someone actually sent me an e-mail asking where I was!) I have not been online because my internet has been the opposite of hunky dory for the past three weeks. Bad times.

But now I'm back, adter completely wiping out my hard-drive :(. Bad/Good Times.

-Neil

The Big HP

lightningphyre — 2004-06-09T08:06:00-05:00

Let's talk about Harry Potter.

AAAAAAH!!! The third movie was so good! It was infinitely better than the first two. I saw it on opening day of course, I heard Jake saw it the day after, what a boob. And then I just had to go back and see it on Monday... !!!

I was so pumped up I even spent two hours cleaning my room the day before the movie came out trying to find my super cool 9 1/2" willow wand with a "unicorn tail hair", but I couldn't find it so I took my plastic wand instead.

Then at the movie I saw some people wearing those Gryffindor scarf things. I never used to really like those, but now I think I want one. I'd rather have a Ravenclaw one, because I'm not really in love with Gryffindor's philosophies. Of course, I'd rather have Hufflepuff's colors. I think they only make Gryffindor ones though... Anybody know?

Anyways, I'm spent on HP right now. Waiting for book 6 and the 4th movie...

-Neil

Video Games and Happy Meals

lightningphyre — 2004-06-11T04:06:00-05:00

When I woke up this morning, I decided to play Paper Mario. Which I did for about 3 hours. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The onyl reason I got up this morning was become Jimmy was being an ass and calling me like every 3 minutes. I wonder if he got some BP on his way home from Carnegie. HAHAHAHAHA.

Then, about half an hour ago, I went to McDOnalds to get a Happy Meal. This is because I wanted the toy. McDonalds currently has Neopets toys. :) So anyways, I now have one yellow Ixi, one cloud Ixi, and two starry paint brushes.

Hmm. I'm wierd.

-Neil

I Love These Things.... And I'm Bored

lightningphyre — 2004-06-11T08:06:00-05:00

What is your name?:	Neil
Are you named after anyone?:	Grandpa, Dad... but not junior or third
What's your screename?:	lightningphyre, dem0nc0w, mats77
Would you name a child of yours after you?:	No
If you were born a member of the opposite sex what would your name be?:	possibly Nicole
If you could switch names with a friend who would it be?:	Keller maybe
Are there any mispronounciations/typos that ppl do w/ your name constantly?:	they always spell it Niel
Would you drop your last name if you became famous?:	No
Basics
Your gender::	male
Straight/Gay/Bi::	straight
Single?:	yes
If not, do you want to be?:	i am happy
Birthdate::	10 18 88
Your age::	15
Age you act::	54
Age you wish you were::	90
Your height::	5'7"-8"
Eye color::	brown
Happy with it?:	most of the time
Hair color::	brown with not brownness
Happy with it?:	definitely
Lefty/righty/ambidextrous::	righty, except for breakout strokes in swimming
Your living arrangement::	umm, in a house?
Your family::	Dad, Mom, Dog (Sister), Dog (Canine), Cat
Have any pets?:	yes
Whats your job?:	to know everything about harry potter and to help my global studies teacher with pronounciation
Piercings?:	eventually
Tattoos?:	eventually
Obsessions?:	Harry Potter, biting/clipping nails, have to comb hair in certain way
Addictions?:	Depends on the day
Do you speak another language?:	Not fluently
Have a favorite quote?:	sorta
Do you have a webpage?:	http://lightningphyre.mindsay.com
Deep Thoughts About Life and You in it
Do you live in the moment?:	Depends
Do you consider yourself tolerant of others?:	Depends
Do you have any secrets?:	Yes
Do you hate yourself?:	Not normally
Do you like your handwriting?:	I guess
Do you have any bad habits?:	Yes
What is the compliment you get from most people?:	Umm, too many to choose
If a movie was made about your life, what would it be called?:	Wierdo!
What's your biggest fear?:	the mail man maybe?
Can you sing?:	sorta
Do you ever pretend to be someone else just to look cool?:	huh?
Are you a loner?:	depends
What are your #1 priorities in life?:	make lots of money
If you were another person, would you be friends with you?:	once i got to know myself
Are you a daredevil?:	no
Is there anything you fear or hate about yourself?:	i dunno
Are you passive or agressive?:	depends
Do you have a journal?:	blog
What is your greatest strength and weakness?:	dunno
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?:	make myself less shy i guess
Do you think you are emotionally strong?:	what?
Is there anything you regret doing/not doing in life?:	yea
Do you think life has been good so far?:	yea
What is the most important lesson you've learned from life?:	i dont learn life lessons
What do you like the most about your body?:	umm, i dunno
And least?:	my million knuckled toes
Do you think you are good looking?:	i guess
Are you confident?:	depends
What is the fictional character you are most like?:	malfoy
Are you perceived wrongly?:	in what way?
Do You...
Smoke?:	not cigarettes or drugs
Do drugs?:	not illegal ones
Read the newspaper?:	parts of it
Pray?:	no
Go to church?:	only if my parents make me
Talk to strangers who IM you?:	yea
Sleep with stuffed animals?:	no
Take walks in the rain?:	yes
Talk to people even though you hate them?:	oh yeah
Drive?:	sorta
Like to drive fast?:	no, im afraid i'll kill myself
Would or Have You Ever?
Liked your voice?:	dunno
Hurt yourself?:	yes
Been out of the country?:	yes
Eaten something that made other people sick?:	no
Been in love?:	like life partners love, no
Done drugs?:	yes
Gone skinny dipping?:	yes
Had a medical emergency?:	i guess
Had surgery?:	yes
Ran away from home?:	thought about it
Played strip poker?:	yes
Gotten beaten up?:	no
Beaten someone up?:	no
Been picked on?:	yes
Been on stage?:	yes
Slept outdoors?:	yes
Thought about suicide?:	only in a non-actually gonna do it way
Pulled an all nighter?:	yes
If yes, what is your record?:	about 38 hours?, woulda gone longer but parents made me sleep
Gone one day without food?:	yes
Talked on the phone all night?:	no
Slept together with the opposite sex w/o actually having sex?:	in the same bed, no... same room as not 4 year olds, yes
Slept all day?:	yes
Killed someone?:	no
Made out with a stranger?:	yes
Had sex with a stranger?:	no
Thought you're going crazy?:	yes
Kissed the same sex?:	no
Done anything sexual with the same sex?:	no
Been betrayed?:	yes
Had a dream that came true?:	all the time
Broken the law?:	yes
Met a famous person?:	i dunno
Have you ever killed an animal by accident?:	yes
On purpose?:	yes
Told a secret you swore you wouldn't tell?:	yes
Stolen anything?:	yes
Been on radio/tv?:	yes
Been in a mosh-pit?:	yes
Had a nervous breakdown?:	no
Bungee jumped?:	no
Had a dream that kept coming back?:	no
Beliefs
Belive in life on other planets?:	yes
Miracles?:	not god miracles
Astrology?:	yes
Magic?:	yes
God?:	no
Satan?:	no
Santa?:	no
Ghosts?:	sometimes
Luck?:	yes
Love at first sight?:	no
Yin and yang (that good cant exist w/o bad)?:	yes
Witches?:	yes
Easter bunny?:	no
Believe its possible to remain faithful forever?:	no
Believe theres a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow?:	no
Do you wish on stars?:	no
Deep Theological Questions
Do you believe in the traditional view of Heaven and Hell?:	no, dont exist
Do you think God has a gender?:	no, doesnt exist
Do you believe in organized religion?:	no, waste of time and mental energy
Where do you think we go when we die?:	we dont go anywhere, once ur dead, ur dead
Friends
Do you have any gay/lesbian friends?:	umm, not that have told me they are, but maybe?
Who is your best friend?:	depends on the day
Who's the one person that knows most about you?:	have no idea
What's the best advice that anyone has ever given to you?:	dont make out with a girl then tell her you dont have feelings for her if shes expecting you to like her
Your favourite inside joke?:	too many to choose
Thing you're picked on most about?:	dunno
Who's your longest known friend?:	longest known person who used to be friend: Ian Worden, longest known friend: Vaessa Cunningham
Newest?:	dunno
Shyest?:	me
Funniest?:	umm, dunno
Sweetest?:	dunno
Closest?:	depends on day
Weirdest?:	all of them
Smartest?:	dunno
Ditziest?:	Dewey Bunfill
Friends you miss being close to the most?:	umm, dunno
Last person you talked to online?:	a stranger
Who do you talk to most online?:	i dunno
Who are you on the phone with most?:	i hate the phone
Who do you trust most?:	depends
Who listens to your problems?:	whoever i can tie down
Who do you fight most with?:	Jimmy Hapgood maybe
Who's the nicest?:	dunno
Who's the most outgoing?:	Brad Aills maybe
Who's the best singer?:	umm
Who's on your shit-list?:	Brad... lol
Have you ever thought of having sex with a friend?:	yea
Who's your second family?:	Hapgoods maybe
Do you always feel understood?:	depends
Who's the loudest friend?:	umm
Do you trust others easily?:	no
Who's house were you last at?:	Alicia Schneider's
Name one person who's arms you feel safe in::	dunno
Do your friends know you?:	some of them
Friend that lives farthest away::	idk
Love and All That
Do you consider love a mistake?:	yes
What do you find romantic?:	i dont
Turn-on?:	shallow outer appearance stuff
Turn-off?:	shallow outer appearnace stuff
First kiss?:	some girl i dont know the name of
If someone u had no interest in had interest in dating u how would u feel?:	i'd feel flattered, but i wouldn't do anything about it
Do you prefer knowing someone before dating them or going:	not interested at all in dating
Have u ever wished it was more socially acceptable 4 a girl 2 ask a guy out:	i guess
Have you ever been romantically attracted to someone physically unattractiv:	no
Do you think the opposite sex finds you good looking?:	some of them i guess
What is best about the opposite sex?:	i dont know
What is the worst thing about the opposite sex?:	when girls go to the bathroom in stampedes because they can't go by themselves
What's the last present someone gave you?:	i have no idea
Are you in love?:	no
Do you consider your significant other hot?:	dont have one
Who Was the Last Person...
That haunted you?:	sister
You wanted to kill?:	sister
That you laughed at?:	as in dirisively? sister
That laughed at you?:	sister
That turned you on?:	heh
You went shopping with?:	mom, groceries
That broke your heart?:	my hearts made of iron
To disappoint you?:	dont remember
To ask you out?:	i dunno
To make you cry?:	dont remember
To brighten up your day?:	dont remember
That you thought about?:	i dunno
You saw a movie with?:	mom and sister, HP3
You talked to on the phone?:	Corina Berrios left a voice mail on my phone
You talked to through IM/ICQ?:	stranger
You saw?:	Kyle Simmons
You lost?:	huh?
Right This Moment...
Are you going out?:	of the house or with someone? neither
Will it be with your significant other?:	dont have one
Or some random person?:	not going out
What are you wearing right now?:	flip flops, two speedos, gym shorts, regular shorts, and a shirt
Body part you're touching right now::	forehead
What are you worried about right now?:	forgettign abotu a tv show i wanna watch
What book are you reading?:	The Secret of Platform 13
What's on your mousepad?:	black and the word Belkin
Use 5 words to describe how you're feeling::	tired hot thirsty bored fine
Are you bored?:	yes
Are you tired?:	yes
Are you talking to anyone online?:	yes
Are you talking to anyone on the phone?:	no
Are you lonely or content?:	content
Are you listening to music?:	no, speakers aren't working and music is gone

Really Long Survey (over 200) brought to you by BZOINK!

Stuff

lightningphyre — 2004-06-16T08:06:00-05:00

I haven't updated in a while because I've been busy with summer school. At first it was one of the most boring things ever, but now it's actually kinda ok.

Water polo is going ok, I still suck. HA

I just finished watching the first episode of Simple Life 2. Its so funny. I cant wait til 9.

Umm, more stuff later?

-Neil

Code Brown

lightningphyre — 2004-06-25T06:06:00-05:00

Wow, I haven't updated in a long while. It's this damn summer school. We only have one week left, but I've definitely reached that burnt out point. This whole week we were doing double chapters and I thought I was gonna die. Last night, instead of reading about some revolution, I went to bed at nine. I'm still tired.

Speaking of tired, I now officially have a love-hate relationship with the black box theater. I love it, becuase it's really cool and probably my favorite place on campus. I hate it because whenever we go in there to watch boring documentaries (evereyday) I find it impossible to fall asleep. Maybe its the three hundred cell phone lights all around me.

During breaks at summer school, though, I manage to have lots of fun. Sure, the brownies are erratic, but all in all summer school is actually pretty good, and would be better if we weren't going at such a breakneck pace.

Water polo's pretty good. I've never really cared about the fact that I suck major ass and so I just use practice as a time to hang out wiht my friends. I fel sorry for some people though: I think they're friends with Vince Brown; poor them.

Last night I had swim practice for all us super summer schoolers. However, when we got to the pool, we found out there had been a code brown in the outdoor pool; we headed to the indoor pool. The indoor pool is the bane of my existence. I hate it. I thought I was going to die. It's almost impossible to breathe in there and the pool tastes funny. I was seriously rehearsing what I would say after I threw up on someone as an apology. Luckily I made it through.

This weekend is gonna be packed, good thing we only have one chapter as homework. Tomorrow is the swim meet, and then at five I leave for the high school swimmers camping trip. It should be really fun, as long as Sharon is "chaperoning". Everyone on the beach getting tipsy.

I went to McDonalds today to get another Neopet, since they were only supposed to have them until Monday. Unfortunately they ran out so they had new sucky toys.

I just read Andrew's blog about his dream. Only a few problems. The sun would not be pulled to the Earth due to gravity, it would be the other way around. If the sun was close enough to "shatter", I think he said, the moon, they would all most definitely be dead. If the moon did shatter, the pieces would "fall" towards the sun, not the Earth, once again due to the much larger gravitational pull of the sun.

Anyways, my current music ("Automatic Girl" by Lola Ray) is my new favorite song. It's crazy cool. Download it. The band name is misleading. Like I said, it's crazy cool.

Oompa Out,
Neil

P.S. "Whirling and twirling in the widening gyre/
The falcon cannot hear the falconer/
Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold/
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."
-Yeats, The Second Coming

Who are you? Where are my pants?!

lightningphyre — 2004-06-27T09:06:00-05:00

A few words of advice: Tetris will ruin your life, "Vladimir" will make everything better.

The swim meet on Saturday was actually one of my favorites so far. But the real fun started that night.

A lot fewer people turned up for camping then was expected, but it was so much fun. Unfortunately, we thought Russel wasn't gonna show up but he was waiting for us at the campsite. Russel was actually ok though; however, I wouldn't call him a god like Corina was. But maybe that was the Vladimir talking.

Speaking of Vladimir, I was kinda dissapointed that all we had was vodka (Smirnoff I think), but it was okay. We had lots of stuff to mix it with. I personally think it was best taken straight though as me and Matt ended up doing. I wasn't really drunk until then (high tolerance?) but then after that me and Matt were gone. I wasn't as screwed upa s Matt though. Matt is hilarious drunk. And now a sampler:

You have wonderful hands.
She's fucking hot... No, she's fucking hot!
Amy's everywhere;I was talking to Neil, and he was Amy.
Who are you? Where are my pants?!

Luckily, no hangovers. But lotsa dirt. Which reminds me, I bought some shampoo today. Thought you might like to know.

-Neil

I WANNA PUNCH THE SCREEN

lightningphyre — 2004-06-29T09:06:00-05:00

I hate my sister with all the depths of my being. Everyone says, "Oh, you lve her deep down inside, even if you don't like her." None of them know how wrong they are. I hate my sister with all the depths of my being.

I would let her die and be happy. If she was drowning like the girl in the anti-smoking commercial, I owuldn't jsut stand on the dock and watch, I'd hold her head under. I would let her die and be happy.

I want to hurt her. But I can't. So I thought of putting a picture of her on my comp screen and punching it, but that would only hurt my comp. I want to hurt her.

I hate my sister with all the depths of my being.
I would let her die and be happy.
I want to hurt her.

That pretty much sums it up.

-Neil

New Pic

lightningphyre — 2004-06-29T09:06:00-05:00

I added a new picture that I can use instead of my black and white one. It's a smaller more screwed up version of this:

Click Here

-Neil

P.S. I think this is my current favourite picture of me. I don't have many good ones.

Bloody Brilliant

lightningphyre — 2004-06-30T08:06:00-05:00

WOOOHHHH!!! I'm so excited that finally the name for HP 6 is out. In case you're not a complete loser, it's called Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Supposedly the prince isn't Harry or Voldemort, so who knows. I can't wait.

I was at the q42 page for mindsay looking at the names of recently updated people and I saw one that I recognized as Latin. Which is kinda cool I guess. But it was kinda depressing, it meant "I always weep".

Today I got a giant orange ticket that grants me Free Admission to Crazyworld. Good thing I can present it anywhere, because I'm already in Crazyworld. (Or so it says)

Simple Life 2 is on again tonight. I can't wait to see what they do next. :)

-Neil

School... And Stuff?

lightningphyre — 2004-07-01T09:07:00-05:00

Tomorrow's the last day of summer school. Good and bad. Pizza party = good. Last day = good. No more Charlie Cavbalier for a hopefully long time = very good. Less time with friends = bad.

I wish Charlie had gotten expelled today. I hate him.

Tomorrow I go to the rodeo with Brad. That'll be cool. I wonder if he's really gonna dress up as a cowboy. What a raging homosexual.

Then on Saturday I go up to Harmony Ridge again. I think I'm only staying until Sunday though. Oh well, plenty of time to go the dance and play soem volleyball, and best of all: It'll be Katie free!

-Neil

Hopefully I'll get a chance to steal that thing I want to steal this weekend.

Layout Poll

lightningphyre — 2004-07-04T03:07:00-05:00

Game

lightningphyre — 2004-07-04T11:07:00-05:00

I did it in 2 seconds.
I deserved an A++!!
Take the How Dexterous Are You? Quiz!!

Which One?

lightningphyre — 2004-07-05T09:07:00-05:00

Okay... I've decided to keep a picture of the Dark Mark on the side of my blog as opposed to a picture of Chernabog, But now I need help deciding which picture to use. Should I use the one currently on the side, or should I use this one:
http://img43.photobucket.com/albums/v132/lightningphyre/negmark3.gif

Leave a sacrifice to let me know which you like better.

-Neil

Hodgepodge

lightningphyre — 2004-07-07T02:07:00-05:00

The thing I hate most about blogs is when there's stuff you wanna post but then you either forget or don't have time. And then it goes on for a couple of days, and it really starts making you upset. Then you end up with one of those emails saying they care about us and want us to update, even though it's a generic form letter. And then when you finally get back to posting it almost feels like as if you walked into a classroom after being gone for a week without any explanation and everyone just stares at you. Anyways...

I got a haircut yesterday. Well, most of you might not count it as a haircut, but I do. Yu'see, I only got like an inch cut off. Most people can't notice with my hair, but I can. Plus now my head isn't so hot.

Lately I've been listening to my old Alanis Morissette c.d. Like the OLD one. Jagged Little Pill. I really like it, but I don't like the new Alanis stuff all that much.

Today's Wednesday, and you know what that means: SIMPLE LIFE 2! Yes! That show is the funniest thing ever. Speaking of funny, I was watching Last Comic Standing last night. I was really upset that Ant got voted off, because he was really funny, but Gary was really funny too. Ant's whole gay thing got annoying after a while though.

We did a snake workout today in swimming. Man I hate those things. What I don't hate is deep conversations in the hot tub concerning the advantages of unique camera techniques and whether or not they outweigh disturbing content. Or soemthing. I also don't hate the handshake. **Hail it, Reverse it, Woopsies, Boioioing, Pweekpweekpweekpweek**

Yesterday I had something done to my braces. I'm not sure what. Hmm.

Right now I'm reading a book called the hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse (all lowercase letters, intriguing). It's really wierd, but it's actually kinda good. The plot that is. The writing style is really... not great and erratic. And it's mostly dialogue. That isn't a bad thing, but sometimes I can't figure out how the characters feel when they say something. I think if a more accomplished writer took the plot and wrote it, it would be better. But like I said, it's actually kinda good, in a wierd sort of way.

I've taken to worshipping the Dark Lord. Purebloods unite! LOL

-Neil

P.S. lightniNgphyre: umusthavepitabreadforbrains

Anniversary

lightningphyre — 2004-07-07T04:07:00-05:00

I just realized that in four days I will haev been on Mindsay for a year. That's right Sunday will be the one year anniversary. Starting on Sunday, the festivities will begin and last until the end of the month.

Well, not really, but I might end up referencing things I posted in my first month here at Mindsay. So in roder to get acquainted, why not check it out here.

-Neil

White Grape Juice

lightningphyre — 2004-07-07T10:07:00-05:00

We ran out of juice on Monday.

Normally this would not upset me. I do not drink juice. Juice is not somethign I drink. However, on Saturday, I drank some Cranberry juice. Then I finished the bottle.

So on Sunday, when I was at the grocery store, I was going to get some Cranberry juice. But then I remembered the ads for Welch's White Grape juice with that annoying little girl. So I had to get some. Plus, they were Niagra grapes. How much cooler could it be.

Then we ran out of juice on Monday.

I am still waiting for my mom to take me to the store so I can pick out a new bottle of juice. I think I want Cranberry, but I'm not sure. And even if I did want Cranberry, I'd still have to pick out the bottle. It's a thing.

I almost forgot. Tomorrow I'm going to the Warped tour with... ummm... people? I know one person is going and that's Jenny, because she invited me. I know some guy is going, but I don't knwo the guy. And I don't knwo who the fourth person is (Hannah?) because Jenny kept changing her mind.

Anyways, I get to walk to Jenny's house tomorrow morning because my mom will be at work. Quibbling. With her idiotic co-workers.

Speaking of work, I'm gonna get paid thirty (30) dollars (dolares(?)) for what I figure to be about an hour and a half of work. But actually only like 30 minutes an hour of it was work. The other hour was sitting watching the grass grow... Litteraly (watering a lawn and feeding a deaf dog). I think that's a fair payment for my time, I am a very important personage as you know.

Now it's time to say good bye, to all our family. M I C K E Y M O U S E... I always ahted that song.

But I really am gonna get going, because I have to go read more of the hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse. Which by the way is how the title looks on the book, minus the underline. It's actually a good book. Buy it.

-Neil

Warped Tour

lightningphyre — 2004-07-09T07:07:00-05:00

Yesterday was the Warped Tour.

SO I started the day off by walking over to Jenny's house, which took me exactly half an hour. Which is exactly what I figured it would take me. FREAKY! LOL. And so when I got there, I met Andy, and said hi to Emily. It's wierd, even though me and Emily were never really friends, yesterday it seemed like we had been friends all along. And then I met the dogs. The dogs were huge.

Long story short, we ended up in the car with Hannah, then at Starbucks and then on the road. Some people in a car next to us ended up behind us. They then proceeded to throw a GAtorade bottle at our car. Not very cool.

Longer story short, we ended up waiting in the crowd for Taking Back Sunday too start. We thought it was hot then, little did we know...

So the bands we actually ended up seeing because we actually wanted to and not jsut because we were eating next to them were TBS, Yellowcard, and New Found Glory. I wanted to see Flogging Molly, but we only ended up seeing the last ahlf of it when I finally dragged them over to the stage.

I'd have to say Flogging Molly were the best. I had only heard Devil's Dance Floor before and I didn't even know they were gonna be there, so it was great.

After we saw them, we all headed over to their booth tent thingy. I bought a button, a sticker and a CD. I also bought a Warped Tour shirt. Of course, I got like five million free stickers, my favorite one coming from the PETA booth. I think I also ended up with a guitar pick.

By then it was the end of the day, sorta, so we left. It was fun. Next time I'm definitely bringing a camel back though.

Today a couple things happened. First off, I decided brom now on how I shall pronounce banana. Most people pronounce it buhnanuh. I shall however pronounce it buhnuhnuh. Wierd.

I also read a lot more of the hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse. That book is so wierd and great at the same time. I also think I took a nap.

Oh yeah, I got some more juice.

-Neil

Religious Shit

lightningphyre — 2004-07-12T12:07:00-05:00

Well, I finished The da Vinci Code today and realized I was gonna end up posting about religion. Something I think I try to avoid unless it has to do with school.

Anyways, let me express my beliefs ina nutshell about Catholicism. I do not believe in God. I do not believe that Jesus was the messiah. I do not know whether Jesus existed or not. I have no reason to believe he did not exist, I just do not believe in all the religious aspects of his life.

Moving on:

I ended up at Andrew's blog (Unifin) today and reread his post about God. One quick point I had to talk about:

"the definition of faith: Belief in something whose existence cannot be proven. The man who cannot believe in what he does not see ... is hopeless."

The choice of words upsets me on a different level that the thought itself, so I will address them first. You say the man is hopeless? What exactly by hopeless do you mean? The American Heritage College Dictionary basically describes hopeless as having no hope.

Hope, it then defines, is "a wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment". I don't see how this relates to atheism, and so I will look for another definition. The dictionary also lists this: "Hope Christianity The theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good". I'll assume this is not what Andrew meant and go with the incorrect, yet understandable, intent that hopeless be substitued by "doomed".

With this understanding we would see that people who could not believe would be doomed. Perhaps this means Hell, for those who do believe. But forgettign about Hell for a minute, I would like to point out that many atheists are successful, whether by their standards or by society's. I am not going to spend time researching names, if you're actually that interested feel free.

"how do we know that people really exist when we don't see them? How do we know that our world is more than an illusion?"

About this, many people have theorized. But I offer for example, the nihilist. A nihilist is someone who believes that nothing exists. Nihilism is also a belief that nothing can be known or communicated. Unfortunately, nihilsim is also "a delusion that the world or one's mind, body, or self,does not exist." Don't ask me to explain why anyone would believe this, I can't. My LAtin teacher already got upset with me for bringing this up, but I was merely relaying facts.

The point, anyways, is that to some people nothing exists, even when others agree that things od indeed exist. A theist could indeed be called the opposite, for they believe in things that some people do not believe in. How does anyone know which is right, or even if neither or both are?

"I wonder how anyone could not believe in God. Sure, you can't prove His existence"

Do I even need to comment on this? You just followed up a question with the answer. You can't prove his existence, so why do you expect anyone to believe in him? Maybe that should be the main question.

"People say that God must not exist, because if He did, He would not let things happen like the torture of prisoners in Iraq, or 9/11. The truth is, when we say this, we are trying to understand God's will. His will is so immense ... that our human minds ... cannot see past the fog that clouds our consciousness."

Andrew, of all the smart geniuses, I thought not even you could be fooled by something as this. Yes, many people, and obviously you believe in this justification, but to everyone else, it is only that, a justification. A poor justification at that. How simple would it be for anyone to explain anything away by saying that we just don't understand the plan for something.

Could a convicted murderer be cast in a better light for claiming that nobody understood why he killed people, and that it was really a sincere way of thanking his daughter for the birthday card she sent him? I doubt it. I realize that is a strange example, but it's along the same lines as saying God lets people suffer for a better reason.

END ARGUMENT

I stopped that because I don't even remember the point I set out trying to make.

No offense to anybody out there, I'm just really bored.

-Neil

Stuff

lightningphyre — 2004-07-12T02:07:00-05:00

LOOK OUT!
ïòð

lightningphyre is a radioactive squirrel!!

From Go-Quiz.com

Am I cool or uncool? [CLICK]

You are Super-Cool!

Woah! Step back - the future's so bright for you it's blinding me! You are the coolest of the cool. Everyone looks up to you as the benchmark for being coooool. The fonze was your grandfather. Any cooler and you'd freeze! WOO it's chilly in here.

Cool quizzes at Go-Quiz.com

School... and den... and den... and den...

lightningphyre — 2004-07-17T11:07:00-05:00

So today we swam against the Willow Creek Fighting Fish. Umm, not really much to say other than we whipped/whooped them.

But the real fun was the conversation all us older kids had about those super cool Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. I'm talking about the old ones of course. So we decided we're gonna have a swim team Power Rangers marathon. That'll be fun.

Next Wednesday we're all going Glow Bowling, and we have the whole alley to ourselves. Which will be cool.

Then when I got home from the swim meet today I checked my mail box and lo and behold, what did I find? Why, my schedule for next year of course. here it is in case anybody actually gives a rat's ass:

Semester 1
Pre Cal	Doherty
Bio XL	Harper
Studio Art 1B	Novinsky
Eng 2XL	Shakely
Latin 2	Witucki
Theo 2A	Cheney
Semester 2
Pre Cal	Doherty
Bio XL	Harper
Phys. Ed.	Evans
Eng 2XL	Shakely
Latin 2	Witucki
Theo 2B	Olsen

Umm, yea... So there.

-Neil

They Float Through Walls and Your Head!

lightningphyre — 2004-07-20T09:07:00-05:00

Radio Waves that is... Anyways, I was thinking today about how much I love going far away where all the radio stations are different and listening to those stations.

It's really cool because lots of times you hear songs that you've never heard before, and sometimes the stations are really good.

This is the last week of swim practice; championships are this weekend. Most people are happy that its over, but I'm not. I reallyl like swimming, especially early morning practices because they just get you so woke up. Overall swimming is really fun, except for the handful of CRAZY BITCHES...

I'm actually going to water polo today, after not having been going for two weeks I think.

I think it was yesterday someone made a comment on my last entry saying they liked my profile. It kinda, I dunno, freaked me out or something because it was such a crappy profile. So I made it better. Kinda. At least now its more profile-ish... And its got a fetus!

You know what music video is really cool? The "Slither" video by Velvet Revolver. Not su much the video actually, as the place the video is in. Whatever.

Yeah,
Neil

It's never too early...

lightningphyre — 2004-07-20T03:07:00-05:00

It's never too early to start planning for Halloween. SO I present to you this poll, to help me with this uber important decision:

Surprize Parties Are OK As Long As You Tell Me About Them

lightningphyre — 2004-07-22T10:07:00-05:00

Yesterday the swim team had this shindig at a bowling alley, so I went because a bunch of other people were going also. Anyways, we get there and it's glow bowling, which is normally cool, but since this was a rundown bowling alley, it wasn't that great.

So I was sitting waiting for my turn with one of my friends and we were admiring how our bowling shoes looked under the blacklight... And how cool they looked in general. So I said, "Do you think they'd notice if we stole them?" And he replied in a negative manner.

So then imagine me just walking out of the bowling alley with my bowling shoes still on and my real shoes in my hand. I was afraid that they might see me walking out so I walked real close to the counter behind which the people were working so that they couldn't see my feet. Moral of the story: My new bowling shoes are now my favorite shoes, especially since they slide on smooth surfaces.

On a different subject, I don't know where my loyalties lie. I've always been a devout Ravenclaw, praising the blue and bronze. But lately I've been really interested in Hufflepuff. I dont know if I actually like the house more, or just their colors. I think it's their colors. Not only do yellow and black just naturally look cool together, but there's another reason.

In the books, Ravenclaw's house colors are blue and bronze. However, in the movies, they are blue and silver. Now, don't get me wrong, I like the blue and silver; however I'm all for canon and blue and bronze is the only way to go.

I want a Harry Potter scarf, but they only officially sell Gryffindor and Slytherin ones. Sure, there's places on the net where you can buy scarves that people have made for Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, but they just aren't the same. So I'm hoping that as Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw characters become more important in the 4th and 5th movies, they'll begin to sell their scarves. But I can't decide which I would buy... Oh well, I have a while.

Today I'm actually going to water polo. I haven't gone in either 2 or 3 weeks, I can't really remember. Either way, it'll be good to see my friends again. I don't get out much during the summer. Of course it's by choice, but it still is true.

Championships are on Saturday, which means a bunch of things. Tomorrow is the last day of swim practice and the day of the Lunch of Champions. I also have to shave tomorrow and go to the hotel where we'll be staying for the weekend. It also means I have to miss Andrew's party (birthday party?). I'm bummed about that because I wanted to go.

Speaking of parties: My parents have been talking a lot about my birthday party recently and I don't know why. It's so far off. My mom's been talking a lot about surprize parties and I explicitly forbade it. She said she wasn't so sure about that. I gave in and said that if she ever did throw a surprize party for me she'd have to tell me when it was. She could keep the food, guest list, location, and everything else secret as long as she let me know when it was gonna be. I would be so pissed if someone had me show up at a party I had no idea about.

-Neil

Swim Champs

lightningphyre — 2004-07-26T02:07:00-05:00

So swim champs was this weekend... We won, but is that really a surprize? I'm kinda upset though, because if all goes to plan we'll be moving to a different league next year. Which is good and bad.

Staying at the hotel was so much fun, even though it was in Rocklin whcih is so close, but its tradition. Playing Spoons and Big Booty in the middle of the hallway was definitely memorable, as was dinner the first night.

Here's a few pictures because I'm way too lazy to talk about champs. They don't really explain anything, but whatever:
Our Car
We Will Terminate!
Me After A Race

There are more and better pictures of me, but they aren't on the team website yet, so I can't link to them. Maybe some other time.

-Neil

Photobucket Album

lightningphyre — 2004-07-28T12:07:00-05:00

I added a link to my Photobucket album on the sidebar. If youc an't find it, your blind.

Unfortunately for you, it's a private album so you can only see it with a password.

The password is turtle. But don't get too excited, that's a read only password, which means you can only see teh pictures, youc ant actually do anything.

I'm putting this link up and giving you all this password with the reminder that BANDWIDTH THEFT IS ILLEGAL!

-Neil

Vegan Shoes?

lightningphyre — 2004-07-28T05:07:00-05:00

This post is gonna be boring but it's all I did today and I have a lot of time on my hands right now.

Last week I decided I needed to buy clothes for Katie A.'s mom's wedding because the only nice clothes I have are black, adn it's way too hot for that.

So today my sister (who is also named Katie but will be referred to as Ogre for easy's sake), my mom and I went to Sunrise mall. I needed to get dress clothes as previously stated and Ogre wanted to buy Converse All Stars or something.

So when I heard that I said I wanted to get a new pair of shoes also because my old ones are getting a little too old and I wanted less of a bulky skate shoe and more of a... umm... thinner (?) shoe because my bowling shoes reminded me of the joys of that.

Long story short my mom and I decided to buy my dress clothes at the galleria later tonight and I ended up getting a pair of Eliot shoes made by Macbeth with some jeans, a shirt, and two free ties from Zumies. The shoes are Vegan shoes also, which is kinda wierd, and which means that nothing, not even the glue, comes from either cow or animal parts (I don't remember which).

Then I had Panda Express. Which made me think of "and den". Which is really random right now.

-Neil

P.S. I'm not Vegan, I just thought that it was cool that the shoes were.

The Cake Looks Like Shit

lightningphyre — 2004-07-29T04:07:00-05:00

Lemme break it down to you:

Today Katie D and Vanessa finally followed through on their promise to bring me a cake. The problem: They had no icing and had to make it from scratch.

So they show up with a vanilla cake that dyed red even though I asked specifically for purple or bright green, and the crappiest icing job I've ever seen. I'm serious, this cake looked like shit.

But the cake tasted good, which is good. Good. And I've got some more left so I'm gonna have it for desert and breakfast.

Today I also baked some beer bread, but since i was home alone and didn't want to raise suspicions with the parentals, I used white grape juice instead of beer. It still turned out pretty good. It would have been better if I had some nuts or dried fruit to toss in.

So whiel Katie and Vanessa were at my house today, my mom took all of us and my sister to a alteration place so I could get my pants hemmed. They're supposed to be done by tomorrow.

Also while they were at my house, we started working on my prospective guest list for my birthday party. Since it'll be my sixteenth, my moms getting all excited even though I'm not. I think I'm gonna rent a laser tag place and so I wanna invite as many people as possible. Jessica had 85 at that one party of hers, so I'm shooting for 86 at least.

In other words, this means I'll be inviting people even if I've onyl said hi to them once. Unfortunately, I have a hard time remembering who my friends are so I'm gonna go through yearbooks later. Of course, it would also be helpful if those people out there who know me left suggestions in the comments. Whatever.

I think I'm having fishsticks for dinner. I can't wait. I'm not being sarcastic.

-Neil

Wedding Cake and Those Stereotypical Almonds

lightningphyre — 2004-07-31T10:07:00-05:00

I got to get up at 7:30 today... Weeh... Fun... My mom wanted me to help set up for Katie's mom's wedding, but I don't think I actually did much help.

So I went to the wedding which wzs pretty good. The food was ok, not great, not bad. I didn't eat any of the cake because I was too full. Oh well, my mom brought some home and Vanessa said it wasn't that great so I'm not upset. Oh, and they had those little candy covered almonds that no wedding is complete without. I hate them. They sure as hell won't be at my wedding. Or if they are, they'll be rat poison.

So one of my aunts and my (shh!) favorite cousin are supposed to show up tonight. I don't knwo when they will. They live in Santa Cruz, ya'see, and that's a lengthy drive.

I tore my room apart today. Why, you ask?

A while ago (a few years?) I purchased a 9 1/2 inch willow wand with a unicorn tail hair and a nifty case to keep it in. Well, I haven't been able to find it, and for the past two days, the need to find it has consumed me. I still haven't found it. But I did find a car antenna that's pretty cool and I can use as like a wand from the So You Want To Be A Wizard series.

I'm a freak. Not Ima Cooke. Whatever, inside joke from 8th grade. I'm a loser.

-Neil

Radi - OHHH!

lightningphyre — 2004-08-03T02:08:00-05:00

I finally decided to add my Launchcast Radio Station to the side bar today.

What's that, you say?

Well, to make it simple, you sign up for your radio station select a couple of genres, and then it starts to play songs for you. You can rate artists, songs, albums and music videos from Never Play Again to Can't Get Enough. The more you rate, the more it gets to know what music you like.

Plus, you can choose other users ratings to influence your radio station as well.

I don't expect any of you to listen, but you can if you want. I added it mainly for my own conveniance.

-Neil

Hmm...

lightningphyre — 2004-08-03T02:08:00-05:00

Well, I got this as my result... What do you guys that know me think?

-Neil

Edit: I just popped a really deep zit on my right bicep... It was porgasmic.

hERE'S sOMETHING gOOD

And Another

HAIR!

lightningphyre — 2004-08-03T10:08:00-05:00

Yes, it is official: Tomorrow I am cutting my hair.

So, here's the dill-i-oh. My mom made an appointment at for 3 o' clock with her hair person because I don't feel safe giving creative control to a basic Great Clips employee. Anyways, I did find some pics of hair that I liek and will print out to give her an idea of what I want.

I'm looking for something short, unlike my hair now. And also something that wont take forever to... do? And something easy.

PICTURES:

My hair now:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/lightningphyre/Pics/Myself/glasses.jpg

My plans(?):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/lightningphyre/Pics/Found/hair.bmp (I like the upper right the most)

-Neil

Pommade

lightningphyre — 2004-08-05T08:08:00-05:00

Lessee...

Yesterday I got my hair cut. I think it looks pretty good. Not exactly what I wanted, but it's good enough. SO today when I took my shower it was so easy to wash my hair, and easy to dry too. But I miss head banging when System of a Down plays on my shower radio.

I read in Alicia's blog that the wedding got canceled. I have only one thing to say: THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR TURNING DOWN THE BALLOON DRESS, BITCH! Just kidding... But not really.

This next comment is not racist. I am in no way racist. Don't get upset, it is merely an observation.
At the club every mornign when I go for swim practice, there's always a bunch of old Asian ladies sitting in the hot tub. I think they're funny, even though they're pretty wrinkly and saggy. But it's funny when they argue or something because they get pretty loud and they're speaking Chinese I think.

Oooo. My birthday party's gonna be good. Not gonna give away many details right now, but I can say that I will be able to invite as many people as I want. How cool?!

-Neil

I Can See Your Epidermis

lightningphyre — 2004-08-06T08:08:00-05:00

Hmm. Today I went to the dermatologist. That was porbably the biggest thing of note. Sad.

I am soo hungry right now.

Tonight I have to shave because we have Meet of Champions this weekend.

-Neil

COuld you tell I sturggled to make an update?

Costume Warehouse

lightningphyre — 2004-08-11T11:08:00-05:00

Well, today my mom finally took me to the Crocker to see the exhibit I've been wanting to see since about mid May. It was called Humanimals and Their Kin, and was full of pieces by a guy called Gerald Heffernon. It was great.

So then we went to Joe's Crab Shack by the river and had lunch. We were so close to Evangeline's I was salivating, because I really want to check out the costume warehouse prior to them getting their pre-Halloween stock and Halloween rush.

So my mom said we could go their for a little while and I told her that when browsing a Halloween store, you either take a long time or none at all. So we decided to come back later.

Then later, as in at night, I went over to Amy's hosue with Corina, Eryka (sp?), Lauren, and Alyssa. Because I'm hella cool. You know. They wanted me to bring some guys but I couldn't at such short notice. Oh well, we had fun with contact spoons and meat cleavers.

-Neil

Fucking BINGO Cheaters

lightningphyre — 2004-08-14T11:08:00-05:00

Well, today was my mom's birthday and my dad's company picnic:

Just as I woke up this morning, I remembered it was my mom's birthday. So I went back to sleep.

After I finally got up and got ready to leave since we had to pick up Jimmy, my mom finally entered the same room as me. I said "Happy Birthday". Let me point out that this was probably half an hour after I got up, and an hour and a half after I woke up the first time. I don't seek people out on their birthdays to wish them well, I wait for them to come to me.

So anyways, we picked Jimmy up and had a full car because Katie brought Maddy B. and another girl who I've never liked and still don't like. So the company picnic actually turned out to be pretty fun. We played volleyball with a group of actually compentent people (except for the large fag), we jumped in the bounce house (lol), and we played a rousing coupla games of BINGO.

Oh yeah, I forgot. BINGO sucked ass because of all the cheaters. Each person was allowed to have two cards. But all the people who actually waste money and go to real BINGO halls had like six cards. Even though I'm no pro, I too could have handled that many cards, but I played by the rules. Of course, half the cheaters seemed like hicks who really needed the crappy prizes they gave out.

Notably, I managed to dunk an old guy in the dunk tank or whatever you wanna call it. That was fun. Stupid old folks.

vbJS

-Neil

Secret

lightningphyre — 2004-09-02T10:09:00-05:00

I know I don't know you
But I want you so bad
Everyone has a secret
Oh but can they keep it
Oh no they can't

NuKiTh

FUCK!

lightningphyre — 2004-09-12T01:09:16-05:00

Fucking A!!!! I'm gonna kill version 3

What the heck are you even talking about?

lightningphyre — 2004-09-12T11:09:49-05:00

Well, it's official... It is impossible to create a voodoo doll that represents something as intangible as v3.

But w/e, more on that later. Right now I'm actually gonna talk about stuff, in order to get back into the blogging groove. However, I gotta keep it short, because I'm gonna try and fix as much about my blog as I can. Rest assured, as soon as we can create styles, I'll try and make a new Wrathful God one.

Anyways, today, Amy, Corina, Michelle, and I went to see Napoleon Dynamite. I thought it was hilarious.

Then we went to Spirit and bought a game called Lightning Reaction. I can't tell you too much or else it'll ruin it.

Hmm, not much that I did today. Flip!

-Neil

"Our Brown Friends" - Lola Ray

School Is Shit

lightningphyre — 2004-09-13T11:09:14-05:00

Well... I have to talk about a few of my classes.

Anyways, lets talk about English Xl with Shakeley, fourth period. Normally I like English, but this year... Well,

What is there to say... Hmm, how about I hate Mr. Shakeley and his minions. Mr. Shakeley thinks he's even more of the shit than Mr. Hornback did, and in a bad annoying way. He amkes stupid jokes all the time that are not at all funny. Yet, he's encouraged because about half my class is full of suck up nerds who laugh at everything he says. I want to throw chpastick at them because they're gonna need it when their lips get so fucke dup from ass kissing.

As if that isn't enough, Mr. Shakeley is so boring and so interested in grammar. Fuck that. All I have to say about that.

Maybe I'll talk about the other classes I hate some other time. I'm getting tired of typing the html for breaks just so my entry will look normal since return doesn't auto format anymore... Damn v3!

-Neil

"Slavery" - Spineshank

Size

lightningphyre — 2004-09-14T10:09:01-05:00

Well, hmm...

Last night I added something to the banner as you can see. Yea, it's those words, in the corner. Anyways, they're there to help you see my blog how I see it.

Now, I'm sorry, I know it's kinda a random size. But it's the size of my browser window when I maximise it and have a docked AIM buddy list. Originally I was gonna make it so that it would look better in a more normal size window, but I thought, Why? This is my blog, and I'll do whatever's easiest for me. So there.

Anyways, I still hate v3... But, not as much as I used to. Auggh.

Go here... It's funny. Potterpuppetpals.com

-Neil

Lost in Translat.... Just Lost

lightningphyre — 2004-09-18T03:09:00-05:00

Well, I'm gonna be gone for the next week starting tomorrow because I'm going to Paris. whoel long story later. Gotta sleep right now...

-Neil

Paris

lightningphyre — 2004-09-26T08:09:32-05:00

Ho-kay... So I just got back from Paris last night. Pretty nice, you might say? Right!

Actually, it was so much fun. I loved it, and I loved not having my sister there. Uggh, I would've pushed her out of the Metro if she had been there.

Anyways, I put a select few pictures up in my photoalbum heeeeeere. The password is "turtle". If might not work though, cuz Photobucket is freaking out right now. That's why you can't see my banner or background, but whatever. We have like 256 pictures, but I only put up a few.

I still hate v3!

The onyl bad thing about Paris is I was there during the premier of the O.C., and I don't think anyone taped it for me... UGGH!

I gotta go do a week's worth of homework now.

-Neil

Voodoo and CDs

lightningphyre — 2004-09-27T09:09:14-05:00

Mr. Shakeley says life is random, so are many things. Like this entry.

Speaking of Shakeley, does anyone know how to make a voodoo doll? I really want to make one of him. I htink I'm gonna look them up on the internet.

If I was ever a cartoonist, like a movie/television cartoonist, I'd draw in a very Disney's Sleeping Beauty fashion. What's that, you say? Well, because the movie was set back in medieval times, the artists drew their inspirationf rom gothic art and all the characters are very tall and thin. I thtink it's awesome.

For those of you who know who Fallen Boy is, I'm thinking of uploading his whole saga, along with the never drawn but planned season finale, to the internet. If you don't know who Fallen Boy is, pray that I upload it, or you'll die underpriveleged.

Should states be able to make Pro-Life license plates? I don't think so. I'm pro-choice. But regardless, I don't think they should make any license plates regarding to that topic.

I need to sell magazines, so my Latin class can have a muffin party. That reminds me, I have a Latin Club meeting tomorrow. I don't go cuz I'm a Latin freak, but because me and my friends like laughing at the other people that are their during the meetings. Plus we wanna make duct tape togas to take the state convention.

I have to burn a Lola Ray cd for Zach. Is it Zach or Zack? I dunno.

-Neil

Gal

lightningphyre — 2004-09-29T12:09:23-05:00

Gott keep it short, I'm tired.

Lately I've been going to sleep at like 9:30 because I've been so tired. Tonight I'm skipping watching Father of the Pride so I can bring you this post before going to sleep.

Gal is my new favorite word for girl.

Tonight, at Subway, I saw the hottest girl ever. Like, literally.

-Neil

Cliques That Are Really Kinda Stupid

lightningphyre — 2004-09-30T12:09:42-05:00

So, today we had a water polo game at McClatchy. So after school we're all rushing to get in cars with people we like and I see an open seat in a car full of people I like. But Brad, being an asshole, tells me that his car is full and I can't sit there. So I end up trying to get into like 5 other cars while NEIL MULLER gets to sit in Brad's car!!! IS Brad on drugs? Either he's trying to piss me off or crazy, because anybody in that car who likes Neil Muller more than me is crazy. So I end up in a car with Ellner and bad music. Hell.

But lately a bunch of the water polo guys have been pissing me off. Just because there stupid. And Brad complains that I don't hang out with them anymore and laughs at me like I'm joking when I say it's because I have other groups of friends. I can't imagine why I don't hang out with Brad all that much.

But on to other subjects. Like, Homecoming. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm nto super pumped abotu Homecoming or anything, btu I would like to go. Problem is, BV's and Jesuit's are on the same night. So any girl that I normally would invite to Jesuit's goes to BV. And they'll probably want to go to BV's. My solution?

I'm hoping to find someone to ask me to BV's, or get me a guest pass. So if you're reading this and you go to BV, ask around. Find someone who will take me!!!

-Neil

Picture

lightningphyre — 2004-09-30T01:09:40-05:00

I uploaded a new picture of myself. I think it looks better than my old one, the swimming one.

My new picture was taken by myself while in the catacombs of Paris... Spooky. Lol. Fitting for the theme?

Even if the setting doesn't fit all that much, at least it's more black and white than my old pic and I'm not smiling so much. Gimme feedback.

Babies Everywhere... Yeah!

-Neil

Picture Frames

lightningphyre — 2004-09-30T11:09:26-05:00

So today I brought in a picture frame to frame my charcoal drawing in Art. Well, that is what you do with a frame. Anyways, I was stupid and didn't buy a map, but I got a 10 minute class in cutting my own mat, which was pretty cool. The only problem was that I thought my picture was bigger than it was, so I had to extend it to make it fit the mat. Oh well, it didn't screw it up too horribly.

Only one other guy in my class framed his piece, so I felt kinda special. Also, Mr. Novinsky said there was gonna be a show at the Alumni thing this weekend so I think my piece might be in it. I hope so.

Water Polo's been pissing me off even more than normal lately. It seems that while I was gone last week, my tyrannical rule over the pool was missed and the guys were disobedient to the coaches. SO now we've been paying for it by having purely swimming practices. Today's was so damn hard. Uggh.

And tomorrow we have a tournament that rolls over into Saturday. The tournament starts at Jesuit and Rio tomorrow at 11:30 and goes until about 9:00 tomorrow night, then like all day Saturday. I hate tournaments.

So I just finished burning a cd for Zack. I'm tired but I don't wanna go to bed. Graham Norton is on later.

-Neil

Parties Grow Exponentially

lightningphyre — 2004-10-03T08:10:55-05:00

On Friday and Saturday Jesuit hosted a Frosh/Soph water polo tournament. Now normally, I enjoy tournaments because you sit aroudn most fo the time, but not when you host them. But w/e, it was still fun. Especially beause we got out of school at 11 on Friday.

Friday night I was planning on going home and sleeping, then waking up the next morning for the second half of the tournament. But then my mom arranged for me to go to Loretto's toga dance and spend the night at the house of one of the guys on the team. The dance was ok, not the best, but still fun. It was like a catillion degress though. By the way, catillion is the new word for a really big number like kabillion zillion.

So on Saturday after the tournament, Bobby, Keller, Will, Nick, Cliff and I went with Jack to his house. On the way we discovered where Coach Solander's parents live. But I digress.

Anyways, originalyl it was just supposed to be Nick, Cliff and I playing poker and spending the night at Jack's house. But then Will, Bobby and Keller came with us? Then later, Brad came and even later Calvin came with three girls; Alex, a girl I think was called Haley and some other girl. THEN EVEN LATER Kelley showed up with Martha. I don't think Jack's parents were too pleased, seeing as it went from 4 kids to 16. So eventually everyone left but Will, Keller, Bobby, Cliff, Jack (obviously) and I.

So today I went to Panda Express for lunch and waited in line for like 20 minutes. That place is always packed for meal time so you gotta show up like 20 minutes (at least) before the generally accepted times of lunch and dinner. (12:00 and 6:00)

-Neil

Current Music: "New Hope Generation" - Falling Up and "You Spin Me Round" - Dead or Alive

Days

lightningphyre — 2004-10-04T12:10:15-05:00

Just a couple things...

Yesterday was a special day. It was special because there were only 16 days until my 16th brithday. That's right: October 18th. Right it down.

Halloween isn't far off either. I can't wait. I'm thinking about making a special layout for my blog fro the week before and after Halloween.

Also, I had to put these in:

My dog rolled in shit twice today. TRANSLATION: I had to wash him twice today.

I made one of those myspace things. I don't really want one, I only made on because everyone seems to have one. I'm just gonna use it to link to here. Tomorrow I'll add everyone I know to my friends list on it. It's at http://profiles.myspace.com/users/8426115

-Neil

Praying Mantis, Pooping Oompa Loompa

lightningphyre — 2004-10-05T12:10:18-05:00

Wow.

Mr. Novinsky and his class are definitely my favorite part of school. By far. Today we had one of those discussions that is just like, good. Great. I live for Studio Art.

Today, at lunch, Blake, Brennan, and I watched this group of juniors I think near us. They had caught a praying mantis in a sandwhich bad and were throwing at at people that walked by. They would then rush over to it and reinprison it in the bag. I was about to go walk by with Blake so that we could perform a rescue mission, but then a teacher did it. I hated those kids. With a passion.

In regards to Halloween, which is not far off I might add, I have gottne an idea of what I may dress up as. I would like to either dress up as Two Face (from Batman) or as a lumberjack with this super cool puffy lumberjackish jacket I have. But I'd only dress up liek that if I went to a party because I'd be a porn star lumberjack with no shirt on under the jacket and my super nifty tin foil sunglasses.

I'd also like to be an oompa loompa, but that would take too much work to make. I'm looking to go to a party, but if I don't hear of any, I'll try adn get some friends together to go trick-or-treating.

-Neil

14 days till my Birthday

HE77

lightningphyre — 2004-10-07T01:10:31-05:00

Well, today was my day to go on my sophomore retreat. It was actually pretty fun. We did these activity things that were pretty gay, but we made them fun. Plus it was way better than being in school, but I missed the first day of pen and ink in Art which is a bummer.

NuKiTh

Then when I came back to school I got to sit around for four hours waiting for my water polo game to start. But just because I was sitting around doesn't mean I wasn't being productive. On the contrary, Jack, Keller, and I have finally decided on the main characters and basic plot of our movie. More on that later.

Today was fun.

-Neil

Birthday in 12 Days

Current Music: Trying to get "Personal Jesus" to play on Launchcast

Apathists Anonymous

lightningphyre — 2004-10-08T11:10:34-05:00

Today I was hit with an idea. A glorious idea. An idea for the design of a shirt of a club that doesn't exist. Huh, you say?

Next year, I plan to start the Apathists Anonymous club at school with Jack. This is in rebuttal to the Young Republicans and Young Democrats clubs. They think they are so special, because they care about politics, event hough they can't vote. But who really cares?

Which brings me tot he unofficial but just as catchy name of the club: The Who Cares Club.

Anyways, today I was struck with an idea for the design of the club shirt and so I made it in Paint. Take a gander:

Glorious, no?

-Neil

10 Days Left Until Birthday

Current Music: "Pretty Girl (The Way)" - Sugarcult

Radio Debut

lightningphyre — 2004-10-14T01:10:39-05:00

Today was my radio debut... Huh?

Well, today on KWOD's Morning Show, Kelley price brought the discussion to Catholic School dances. Now, seeing as I go to a catholic school, I called in.

Anyways, they put me on for I'd say about a good minute and a half to two minutes, then put on a senior from Jesuit. He was really dumb and thought private school dances were "more wild" than public school dances. Whatever.

Anyways, kids at school came up to me and told me that they heard me on the radio. I even got a text message from a girl at another school telling me she heard me. If any of you out there heard me, leave a comment.

"Is rubbing your stuff up against a catholic girl in a wool skirt really worth getting your I.D. taken?"

"How many catholic school girls have you knocked doors with?"

-Neil

5 Days Until Birthday

TO BE EDITED

lightningphyre — 2004-10-17T06:10:16-05:00

Hmm... I haven't updated in a coupla days. I kept meaning to, but I didn't have time. But now I have plenty of time, and I plan on using it.

Let's see... Ah yes: On Thursday, the sun was awesome. There had been massive fires in the foothills or something and so the whole sky was like one big cloud, but of course it was in actuality smoke. Anyways, everything kind alooked yellowish, which was really wierd. But the coolest thing was the sun.

For a while in the early and late parts of the day, you could stare and stare at the sun without your eyes hurting. Actually, forget that. You could look at the sun without realizing that your eyes were hurting. The sun was also really red, which was really cool; it looked strange.

But as if that wasn't good enough, practice that day was amazingly easy because it was an unoffical Spare the Air day or whatever. I wish it was like that everyday.

Friday we had the North American Martyrs Liturgy. Man I hate church, so I just played with my NBXMAS tie the whole time. Also, I thought, how cool would it be to have the same suit as Marilyn Manson in the Personal Jesus video?

I'll edit this post at a later time. Right now I wanna play Insaniquarium.

It's Been Awhile

lightningphyre — 2004-11-06T11:11:49-05:00

Well, it's definitely been awhile.

So to get back in the groove I'll just let you all know I added a bunch of pictures to my Photbucket album. I added two complete new sections; consisting of Studio Art and pics that I've ta with my phone. If you're bored check it out. The password is turtle.

-Neil

Wow

lightningphyre — 2004-12-04T06:12:17-05:00

Wow, it's jsut about been forever since I updated but I'm making an early New Year's Resolution to start updating once again... Umm, since nothing has happened yet today, I'll just show you a shirt I ordered on Hottopic.com yesterday:

That is quite an awesome shirt if I do say so myself...

Oh, I almost forgot, today I dressed up like Napoleon Dynamite and it was hilarious... Maybe I'll take a picture of it later.

-Neil

Tonight and Assorted Oddities

lightningphyre — 2004-12-05T03:12:10-05:00

Well, I spent most of the night at Eric Pratt's house. Need I say more?

Uh, I don't need to say more, but I will. It wasn't all that bad. Jimmy, Spencer and Kyle were there so I kinda just ignored Eric. I guess an eternity in Hell might be worse, but it's just a guess.

I was upset though that my dad made me stay so late, we stayed until eleven.

I wanted to leave because Amy invited me over and everyone in that group was at her house. I would have had a lot more fun there, we were going to discuss "Neil Got Raped 2": the sequel to "Neil Got Raped." Inside joke.

So by the time we left, it was too late, so I just came home and got on the computer. I ordered a belt from Hot Topic (see here) and a buckle from Zumies (see here). I've become addicted to buying things online. Haing a checking account is bad,

I'm afriad to think of what I'll do when I get a credit card.

Tonight I went to JonesSoda.com. I've recently become obsessed witht their Blue Bubble Gum Soda and I've been meaning to go to the stie for a while.

Although I missed out on hanging at Amy's (hopefully we'll have Asian Niht

soon), it is nice and quiet here at the house. My sister is at Jingle Ball, which means she's not here. For about a month now she's been constantly reminding me that she is going to Jingle Ball and I'm not, as if I care. I'd rather spend a week at Eric's house then go to Jingle Ball.

I love my art class. It's the one class at school that I actually love for the content, as well as for the people in it. Pretty much everyone in our class is against emo, although there is one really emo kid in the class. So, somehow, we often get in class discussions about emo stuff and the other day a kid made up the saying "extremo", for when something is really emo. Nobody who isn't in the class really thinks it's all that cool, but I do.

Whatever.

Also tonight I added a shot of the sketch for the scratchboard I'm working on right now in Studio Art to my Photobucket account(link on sidebar). In case you don't know what a scratchboard is, it is a thin board covered with a thin layer of white chalk with a thin layer of black india ink over that. You scratch through the ink to reveal the white beneath, almsot like working in negative. Anyways, I've actually started the scrtaching, but I don't have a shot of that yet, so here's my transfer sketch:

If ever you have a chance to attend a play at Jesuit, take it. They always have an art show accompanying the play and that itself is worth the price of admission. Also, I have two pieces featured in the show including a charcoal piece and a pen and ink piece that I cannot stare at enough.

I heard the fourth Harry Potter movie was going to be split into two segments. That's gonna kill me. Uggh. I'm gonna see the first segment the day it come sout, then when the second segment comes out, I'll buy a ticket for the first segment and then have a ticket for the second segment right after the first segment. That way it's kinda like watching it all at once. Do you follow? I hope they put both segments on the same DVD, or else I'll go insane.

-Neil

Current Music: Greenday/Oasis Mash-Up that gets played on KWOD

My Future: Ruined

lightningphyre — 2004-12-06T08:12:18-05:00

The title may be a little overdramatic but I've been looking up instructions on how to make voodoo dolls; Mr. Shakeley is ruining my life. For those of you who don't know, Mr. Shakeley is my English 2 XL teacher.

Now, I'm good at English. I think the lowest grade I've ever gotten in English on a report card was a B+. However, last quarter I recieved a C from Mr. Shakeley; my expected grade for the semester is prbably a D+.

Why should someone who excells in English suddenly do so poorly? Is it because I don't understand, No. I understand the class just fine. Could it be due to crazy policies set by the teacher. Yes. Because of him I have three question marks for grades which will become zeroes.

However, that can't be all. I must admit to some of the blame. But event hat is not truly my complete fault. Mr. Shakeley disgusts me, and so I find nothing to say in his class, thus I lose participation points. However, I have also lost many participation points because he is so fond of assigning soft due dates. Since he doesn't tell us when the assignments are due, how can it be my fault when I don't have it the day he decides to randomly grade it.

More recently, we turned in an assignment that would've have helped my grade immensely; assuming, that is, that he didn't lose it! Now, since everyone says, "But I turned it in!" if he can't find the assignment that I TURNED IN I will recieve late credit for turning in a second copy.

I relaized over the weekend that if my grades continue to downwardly spiral in English, there's no way I'll be accepted into English 3 Honors next year. If I don't get accepted into that, my chances for English 4 Honors are just as shot. Without those classes on my transcript, getting into the colleges I want will be a lot harder.

-Neil

Current Music: "I Hate Everything About You" - Three Days Grace

Oh Happy Day

lightningphyre — 2004-12-07T11:12:29-05:00

Today is Katie's birthday. Hooray for Katie. More importantly (not really), I remembered it was KAtie's birthday. Hooray for me.

Today was just one of those days that makes me happy. I was gonna say that it was one of those days that for no real particular reason you feel great, but it's only partyl that; there were also a couple reasons that made me feel good.

Firstly Mr. Novinsky asked me to stay in at lunch with soem other people to take our pictures out of their frames so a guy from the yearbook could take pictures of them... Novinsky ended up having me use my pen & ink hands picture which I was really happy about.

Secondly the workshop meant to prepare those students who are interested in auditioning for the play was today. It was really fun and Nick and Keller were there. Tomorrow is the actual audition which should also be fun. Keller is in my group but unfortunately Nick isn't.

Thirdly I checked the progress of my Power Rangers shirt from Hot Topic today on the UPS website and it said it should be delievered tomorrow! How much cooler can it get? If I don't dress up all cowboyish for Bogus Ball I'm gonna wear that.

Unfortunately my belt that I ordered from Hot Topic just got shipped today, so it won't be here till next week I'm guessing. I have no idea how to check on the progress of my belt buckle from Zumies, they aren't that great of a website.

-Neil

The Underground

lightningphyre — 2004-12-08T12:12:03-05:00

I had someone describe Mindsay as the unground to me today, and I took a liking to it. We were talking about another site, Myspace, which by the way I am not so fond of, and this person was telling me how they were a sellout for leaving the undergound Mindsay:

BassPlyr1305: im selling out for ditching the underground mindsay

Well, I couldn't tell them they weren't, because they are, but I took a liking to the calling Mindsay an undergound.

-Neil

P.S. BassPlyr1305: sink fires are SOOOO not dangerous!

Current Music: "Imagine" - Redone by A Perfect Circle

It's Morphin' Time

lightningphyre — 2004-12-08T07:12:22-05:00

Today we had dress atire at school so I wore my black pants, with my black shirt and a black tie. It would have been complete if I had worn my black shoes, but I ended up wearing my black shoes that have some beige on them.

Oh well.

For lunch, I decided I wanted a breakfast burriot instead of my normal pizza so I got one along with a Mr. Pibb with no ice. Well, the breakfast burriotes were amazingly small today and the potatoes tasted gross, so it wasn't that great. But I haven't given up on the b.fast burrito because the time I had a good one it was really good.

Later tonight I have auditions for the play. It'll be fun I think. I hope I get cast. Keller says he thinks I will.

Oh yeah! My Power Rangers shirt arrived today which is awesome! It's great, and it fits well too, except it's a little long. Whenever I put it on I'm gonna say, "It's Morphin' Time!" I also checked the UPS website and it says my belt should be delievered tomorrow. That's awesome because I wasn't thinking it would get here until next week.

I'm kinda pissed with the Zumies website though. Because they don't have any membership option like HotTopic.com I wasn't abel to join anything before I ordered my belt buckle. For this reason there isn't a part of the website I can go to to check on the progress of my buckle... It kinda upsets me.

My scratchboard in Art is looking awesome. Long live the Beehive!

-Neil

Current Music: "Mr. Brightside" - The Killers

You Can't Have My Puzzle Piece

lightningphyre — 2004-12-09T07:12:50-05:00

Auditions for MOVE! were last night and I think I did pretty good. I was kinda upset near the end of the auditions though because for like three minutes we jsut had to dance on our own. I don't know how I did on that part.

I was freaking out this morning because I thought they were gonna post the call back list today and I couldn't find it; then I found out that they're posting it tomorrow. Call backs are tomorrow. I hope to at least make call backs if I don't get cast. I'd rather not have to go to call backs and just go straight to being cast, which can happenbut I don't think that will happen.

I had English with Shakeley first period of the day today: not good way to start school. He did his stupid little thing where he looks right at me while talking about something undesirable, today it was about his stupid metaphor that class is like an intellectual potluck and everybody has to bring something. Seeing as I never talk, it was fitting that he stared at me as he said, "[This] class is like a puzzle, and everyone has to give their peice or it doesn't get built." Alright, I get it. You say that everyday, and most of the time you look at me when you say it. I hate you...

Then I had a big "hairy" Latin test and I don't think I did so hot. I'm pretty confident about the second page, but I had no idea what to do on the first page.

By the time I got to Art I was so relieved to have a class that I enjoy. I love Art so much, it sucks that I don't have it next semester. I'd much rather just do the same pieces over again then have to do P.E. P.E. at Jesuit is a joke. Anyways, my scratchboard is progressing so nicely, I'm pissed that we don't have Art or a good lunch period to work on my piece tomorrow.

Theology today was also good. That's proabably my second favorite class, due mainly to the people in it. We started watching "Fast Time at Ridgemont High" today. I've never seen it before and it's pretty funny.

Last class of the day was Pre-Cal, in which we had a nice test on rational functions. I finished first and think I did phenomenal. It's surprising that Pre-Cal is my third most favorite class. Is that grammatically correct?

My belt from Hot Topic came today. It's so cool and I'm really glad it fits me; I wasn't sure if it would or not. Now I'm just waiting on my belt buckle from Zumies, but I have no idea when that's gonna show up.

Tonight is Twisted Christmas and I really want to go, unfortunately it's not happening. Oh well, definitely next year.

-Neil

Current Music: "Slave" - Lola Ray

Quiz

lightningphyre — 2004-12-09T08:12:09-05:00

Strongly Cautioned. Some material in your journal may be inappropriate to younger or close-minded people. This signifies that your journal is probobly inappropriate for pre-teens. people should be especially careful about adding you because they could possibly be offended. Rough or persistent violent talk is absent; sexually-oriented nudity is generally absent; some talk of drug use may be present from time to time in your journal; You may find a fair amount of sex talk here.
What rating is your journal?
brought to you by Quizilla

Different Strokes for Different Folks

lightningphyre — 2004-12-11T03:12:19-05:00

So I just got back from the B.V. Bogus Ball a little while ago. I'll admit, it wasn't the best ever, but I still had fun and I got to see a bunch of people I haven't seen in eons. That was probably the best part.

Earlier today was the call back auditions for the play. I have no idea how I did... It could go either way. As of yesterday I just kinda wanted to be in the play, but now I really, really wanna get cast. I'm really upset at the thought that I might not make it.

Anyways, the cast list gets posted tomorrow, so I'm gonna call school to check it. Ugghhhh... I wish I believed in prayer or some shit so I could think that I was helping my chances. Maybe meditating will work... Ah well, even if it doesn't, it'll help me fall asleep. I'm gonna go do that now.

-Neil

P.S. The title references the different types of dancing involved in and at the dance...

Moblog

lightningphyre — 2004-12-13T09:12:46-05:00

So...

I found this cool website today. It's like a type of blog site, but it's called a moblog because you send in pictures from your camera phone.

Anyways, I figured I'd give it a try so heres the url:

http://lightningphyre.textamerica.com.

Umm, check it out.

Chrismukkah

lightningphyre — 2004-12-17T12:12:55-05:00

Only one more day until Christmas break... That's exactly four hours of class time I wish never existed. I'm not really all that upset about school tomorrow, except for my upcoming English class.

I had to talk to Mr. Shakeley today about my grades and my assignments he's lost and all that crap. Burn. Drown. Whatever.

Before English class today I considered just tumbling over the railing (English is on the second floor) like the guy in the Grudge. Maybe if I died Shakeley would consider it poetic and give me a 1% grade increase post mortem. Probably not though.

The guy who sits next to me in Pre-Cal has been doing a lot of Adderol(SP?) lately and the guy behind him is just an overall druggy, and I love sitting in that corner. Pre Cal is so much fun.

Ahhhh... My scratchboard is almost done. It's looking great. I'm so happy with how it turned out, I'm just afraid I'll mes sup the shoulder.

I wish Zumies would go otu of business. It took them exactly eight, count 'em: onetwothreefourfivesixseveneight, days to ship a BELT BUCKLE! Does it really take that long to ship a BELT BUCKLE? Anyways, all these days that I've been checking my front porch for a box and suddenly I get an e-mail telling me my package shipped... It was even written all chipper and stuff like I should be excited, when In actuality I'm pissed. It's taken them longer to ship it then it will take UPS to get it to me.

Anyways.

I'm typing this in the font "impact". I figured I needed to expand my horizons. (Edit: I changed it back to Times New Roman. I don't do expanded horizons)

Tomorrow night I'm going to Eryka's house. Which reminds me, I need to go to Mapquest.

-Neil

Current Music: "This Time" - Depswa

Presents?!

lightningphyre — 2004-12-19T07:12:25-05:00

So, my parents are currently out doing errands. In the van. Why would they take the van when tehy could take the Z3... Unless, of course, they had to fit a lot of stuff in the van, like presents. When asked where they were going, my dad answered, "Crazy." A highly evasive answer if you ask me. My mom then added, "Your dad still has to get me a Christmas present." That's nice, but then why are you going with him? Especially since about five minutes before that you asked him if he wanted to stay home or come with you...

So it seems like they're out getting Christmas presents. This is good, of course. When they come home, I'll walk out to the car to meet them and see how they react. Later this week when I have a chance, I'll search for the presents. I hate waiting.

On a completely different note, when it comes to picking movies, John (Jhon, Jon?) really sucks. Whenever there's a movie night or whatever at Amy's house he ends up picking crappy movies that he says are really great. Ohhhmyyygawwwwd (in wierd voice).

Asian Night looks like it's gonna be on New Year's Eve. Gotta talk to Corina about that.

-Neil

Current Music: "Tainted Love" - Marilyn Manson

If God Is Real, I'm Doomed

lightningphyre — 2004-12-19T08:12:12-05:00

Right side got cut off... Full image here.

'Bout Time

lightningphyre — 2004-12-20T07:12:13-05:00

As I've said before, I ordered a belt buckle from Zumies on December fourth. Well, today, finally, my belt buckle arrived. In case you've forgotten, it's December twentieth. 'Bout time.

Hmm... Christmas is in five or four days depending on how you count. I still need to get a present for my dad and for my sister. My mom wanted a drawing but since I haven't started it yet I told her it'll be an IOU because it's only half done and I couldn't work on it because I was swamped with my scratchboard. I think I'm getting my dad "Napoleon Dynamite" on DVD and my sister some piece of shit from Claire's.

I downloaded this game called David vs Goliath from a website called Zango.com yesterday and it's pretty fun. Luckily it doesn't have any cheap Bible references. It's just got David and Goliath, with rockets and grenades.

-Neil

Current Music: "The Ol' Beggars Bush" - Flogging Molly

Thematics

lightningphyre — 2004-12-20T08:12:39-05:00

I'm currently in the market for ideas for a new theme. I think it's about time to create a new theme, but I'm stumped as to what it should be about.

Any one have any ideas?

-Neil

P.S. I don't really know what thematics means...

"Special" Sandwiches

lightningphyre — 2004-12-20T10:12:51-05:00

So, everyone's heard of "special" brownies, but has anyone heard of "special" grilled cheese sandwhiches? Well neither have I. BUT.... My dad made me grilled cheese sandwhiches for dinner tonight and they tasted normal. But then about five minutes later I was making mac and cheese for my little sister with a pot that had some crustiness on the bottom of it. I decided that might make the water taste bad, so I tossed in som salt to counter-act it.

Anyways, abotu two minutes later I realized that by adding the salt I had raised the boiling point of the water. Thus, I realized the water would be hotter than normal when it finally reached a full boil. I laughed hysterically for about 3 minutes... This is not normal; boiling points aren't hilarious.

Ona completely different subject, I just watched a show I had never seen before on Comedy Central. It was called "Strangers with Candy". SHIT! That show was so funny! I almost died.

-Neil

Current Music: "Stick it to Dolores" - Harry and the Potters

Piss In a Bucket

lightningphyre — 2004-12-21T08:12:48-05:00

So anyways, the Christmas spirit or cheer or whatever has left me and I'm pissed off. I woke up pissed off this morning and it has gotten progressively worse. Now I'm told I have to make dinner for my little sister, who I despise, and I'm even more pissed off. I sure am glad she's getting fed when there's nothing in the house for me to eat except butter and maple syrup...

I want Christmas to happen, and I want to get past it. Does anyone really enjoy the holiday season?

Tentative plans for Asian Night on New Year's Eve have been formulated. All I know is that there won't be any crappy sci-fi flicks. This hasn't been discussed, I just won't allow it.

My entry today sucks more than usual. My house has become a bucket which I can't get out of. Last night LECHA or whatever Corina calls thema nd all those guys were at Corina's house. But since my sister is sick and my parents were out, I got to stay home. Luck.

Bitterness.

My first issue of Rolling Stone that I subscribed to came yesterday.

-Neil

I Like Making Posts Completely Out Of Pictures, Except For The Title Of Course

lightningphyre — 2004-12-21T11:12:23-05:00

MindSayBot Update

lightningphyre — 2004-12-22T06:12:08-05:00

I hate Mindsaybot

Kinda Wierd...

lightningphyre — 2004-12-22T07:12:30-05:00

So, the other day me and Jimmy decided what we were gonna get each other for Christmas:

We were watching an old episode of Mad TV and those lesbian girl t.A.T.u. were the musical guest. They were doing their thing and Jimmy said "Get me their cd for Christmas." Now, he may have been joking, but I wasn't when I replied, "Ok , I will."

Anyways, we decided I would get him t.A.T.u.'s cd for Christmas and he would get me Aqua's cd. You remember Aqua right, the band who did "Barbie Girl"? Then, after we gave them to each other, we would burn copies of them for each other.

Well, that's still our plan but today Jimmy dropped off my present and I didn't open it when he was still at my house. A couple minutes ago I did open it though, and he bought me Aqua's newer cd, not the one with "Barbie Girl" on it. Soooooo... I'm still gonna burn him a copy of the cd he bought me, but I'm also gonna burn a copy for me and him of the correct cd, which my friend Vanessa has.

I think I'm gonna buy t.A.T.u.'s cd tommorrow. I can just imagine the look I'll get from whoever's gonna be working the register at Tower...

ALERT: My sister just came and told me the sixth Harry Potter book was gonna be released July 16th... Oh I hope it's true. I gotta go research it now.

-Neil

Currently Hoping to Listen to Music: "Barbie Girl" - Aqua & "All the Things She Said" - t.A.T.u.

Make A Joyful Noise My Soul

lightningphyre — 2004-12-22T07:12:47-05:00

I'm salivating because...

HARYY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE IS OUT JULY 16TH!

-Neil

Happy Christmas

lightningphyre — 2004-12-25T08:12:48-05:00

I think we should all embrace "Happy Christmas" as opposed to "Merry Christmas"...

Anyways, a (main) present overview:

Paper Mario 2
Pokemon: LeafGreen
Scanner/Printer/Copier
Hipster's Handbook
Castle of Wizardry
LOTR 3 Extrended Edition
HP 3 Fullscreen Edition (I wanted Widescreen)
NBXMAS Dry Erase Calendar/Count Down to Halloween
A Wierd Light Up Fish Tank That No One Who Knows How To Speak English Was Involved In The Making Of
Groceries

Hmm... My stocking was basically just full of the normal foods I get at the store; so that was kinda cheap.

I'm really happy about the scanner because I've wanted one for a while. And since it has those things where you plug in the memory cards from dig. cameras, it seems I'm getting a dig. camera since my birthday present got cancelled by my principal.

About Pokemon: I admit, there is a negative stigma attatched to Pokemon and those who play it. But, I'm sure most people who have played a Pokemon game start to finish, especially the newer ones, would tell you that they are good games. It is the crazy people who try and "catch 'em all" that give Pokemon its bad rap. I don't try and catch them all, I just play the game... Plus a bunch of people at school play Pokemon so I don't feel as bad about it (except I don't play it at school.)

All in all, Christmas was pretty deck this year... Except for the whole family togetherness thing, that was fin. (See Hipster's Handbook)

I'm in Santa Cruz right now, so, yeah.h.h.h.h........

-Neil

Current Music: "Cuba Libre" - Aqua

P.S. Please to not place in the dusty place (No spellign errors, see Wierd Light Up Fish Tank)

So Tired

lightningphyre — 2005-01-02T07:01:05-05:00

Hmm... Hibernation: Not a bad idea. Anyways, I haven't updated in the past week or so because I've just been too tired. I've been busy with crap during the day and so at night, when normally I would update, I've been going to sleep early.

Anyways, as you may know, Friday night was New Year's Eve.

Well, we had Asian Night at my house. Asian Night? Basically, cheap Asian decorations with Panda Express food and an Asian soap opera that Amy taped. We also had Totoro, which we watched part of. We had a Ouija board also, but we didn't use it.

All in all, it was pretty fun.

This past week I also saw "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" and "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events". I didn't want to go to "LIfe Aquatic", annd it started out not that great, but I ended up loving it.

I had read the first book of 'Series' and hated it, but the movie was really good I thought. I wonder if they'll make movies for the rest of the books in that series.

Today I looked for pictures to use for my printing press project that's coming up in Art. I stuck with pictures focusing on birds (especially ravens), fire, and men with umbrellas... Kinda, I dunno, eclectic?

Umm,

-Neil

Current Music: "Reach for the Stars" - I dunno the artist...

I Don't DO Resolutions...

lightningphyre — 2005-01-02T08:01:43-05:00

In the year 2005 I resolve to:
Generate more bad karma.

Get your resolution here

Hmm...

A Composition In Black and White

lightningphyre — 2005-01-03T09:01:03-05:00

Hmm... I think I talked about this before, but I semi-recently did a pen and ink drawing in Studio Art...

I finished it a while ago, but since I just got a scanner... Well, here it is:

The actual piece is about 8 by 10 inches I think...

-Neil

P.S. Alas, the picture was beautifully centered orginally, but for some reason my /center tab wasn't working so I had to undo the centering because it was centering the rest of my blog...

This Is Yesterday

lightningphyre — 2005-01-05T01:01:43-05:00

My computer was screwed up yesterday so I never got the chance to do a full post.

Well, I wore my gloves yesterday, because it was freezing. Normally a pair of pajamas under my pants is enough but yesterday I needed soemthing on my hands. It's strange, even though my gloves are pieces of decroded crap from Wal*Mart, I love them...

I was thinking about boondoggle keychains being a must have for this season's fashion during Art. I also happened to be using that blue tape that you use on your walls when you're painting. Well, I used the last of it and decided to wear the cardboard tube/circle thing the tape was wrapped around as a bracelet. Anyways, a tape cardboard bracelet is the new must have for this season's fashion.

I detested Shakeley's class even more than normal. He mentioned me at one point during the class, I'm surprized me knows I exist... That's good and bad. I hate him.

I said I was doing my Latin homework last night, but I only did half. It doesn't matter though, because I told my mom I was sick and so she said I didn't have to go to school today.

-Neil

Current Music: "theHumanHosepipe" - Harry and the Potters

This Is Today

lightningphyre — 2005-01-05T01:01:43-05:00

As I said, last night my mom told me I didn't have to go to school because I'm "sick". So... I'm not at school. I slept in till 9:30 today and since both my parents work, I can do whatever I want until they get home. Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to do the Latin homework I only did half of, but w/e.

Typing in gloves is hard.

When I got up this morning, the house was really cold, so I put on two pairs of pajamas, a shirt, a jacket, socks, slippers, and gloves. And my new cardboard bracelet of course.

I think I'm gonna play Paper Mario now. Or read my new copy of The Princess Bride.

-Neil

Current Music: "Tainted Love" - Marilyn Manson

In Sickness and In Health

lightningphyre — 2005-01-05T09:01:17-05:00

My mom asked if I thought I needed another day to stay home and I said yes... Why ruin a good thing?

-Neil

My Hair is Greasy

lightningphyre — 2005-01-06T08:01:23-05:00

So today was my second day of being home "sick" from school. I just played Paper Mario 2 all day and watched t.v. My mom called and said she was gonna e-mail the teachers to let them know I wasn't gonna be at school tomorrow. I was thinking, "Wow, this is awesome! Three days of pretending to be sick." But then my logical(?) side kicked in and reminded me that I have finals in about a week and I don't need to eb missing school right now. So, I told my mom I'd go to school tomorrow. Ecch.

My hair is really gross right now. It hasn't been washed in three days and its got some two day old spray on gel in it... It's all greasy and gross, but I'm too lazy to take a shower.

When I scanned my pen and ink picture of the hands the other day my dad practically demand I print him a copy of it, so I did. Today I realized he now owns the first ever print of a piece by me. Good thing I didn't sign it, or else he could sell it... (I just realized this probably only makes me laugh... Whatever.)

-Neil

Current Music: Old School Mario Music

Fresno

lightningphyre — 2005-01-09T09:01:09-05:00

I just got home from Fresno about two hours ago, I've been there all weekend. It was my mom's best friends birthday so of course I got dragged along. The only good part about Fresno is that there is a store there that selss Jones Sodas in four packs, which is much cheaper than buying them seperately. Around here, it's only random gas stations that sells Jones', and only individually.

Anyways, I bought like 6 packs of Cream, Green Apple, and Berry Lemonade. This is good. But everybody at school always tries to steal them from me. Which reminds me, Bobby threw my vintage, original Power Rangers lunchbox in the trash on Friday.

I had Panda Express in Fresno, but it sucked ass. The Panda Express near Sunrise is better.

My mom got me a bunch of Jones sodas last week when I was "sick" and all the empty bottles are lying around my room. I look like a drunk.

Today I was shocked to realize that Gamecubes are, in fact, not cubes. Outrage! False advertising!

-Neil

Current Music: "11:59" - I think it's by Killswitch Engage, I'm too lazy to check

Shallow Throat

lightningphyre — 2005-01-11T08:01:19-05:00

Yesterday I fell alseep when I got home, so no blog. I thought to myself today, "It's wierd that I wanna justify not updating," but I did it anyways...

Umm, I've got more to say later, but for now all I've got is a picture. It's of my friend that we call "Shallow Throat". He's actually choking himself on a banana, it's that deep in there... There was also one of him with a Twix, but that didn't save on my phone.

-Neil

The Wash

lightningphyre — 2005-01-14T07:01:46-05:00

Well, today I ate a muffin and had like two sips of a soda for lunch. I'm really hungry, but I'm lazy and the kitchen is downstairs.

lightniNgphyre: i lost my soda

I just spent about an hour and a half sorting through Myspace profiles trying to find the profile of any one of three girls. I found one of them, but it didn't say what their AIM sn was (the reason I was looking) and they weren't on line. Boo, that whore.

So then I just looked through the profiles of my friends. One of them had a picture that was taken on my couch, but I wasn't in it.

So then I just looked through the profiles of my friends some more. I really love one of my largest groups of friends.

I'm not really in the mood for this, but I don't have anything else to do.

School sucked today.

Tonight I'm going to Amy's. I wonder who's gonna be there. I realized that the occasional movie night at Amy's is about all I ever do to get out of the house. Maybe I should start doing drugs. I just spent about ten minutes fantasizing about doing drugs.

In a few weeks I'm going to spend the week at Jack's house because my parents are gonna be on a cruise, without me. Today he was telling a story about something he did yesterday and it made me wanna throw up all over his RVCA jacket.

Finals are next week. I get to educate my ass all weekend.

I wanna go camping with the swim team. That'd be a nice break. But without chaperones, like the first time...

-Neil

Current Music: "The Beautiful People" - Marilyn Manson

End of Finals

lightningphyre — 2005-01-21T01:01:07-05:00

So today was the last day of finals. Finally. ...bad...

Umm, after school Mr. Novinsky ran into me and was talking about hwo they were gonna put student art into the next Keeping P.A.C.E. magazine, which is a magazine for Jesuit alums that gets mailed to like 12,000 people. Anyways, he was talking about putting in the pen adn ink hands I did and is having me finish my scratchboard this weekend, so I assume he wants to use that also. In addition, he said to come by the studio next week so we can get a picture of us doing something in the studio to include as well. So that was cool.

I just finished watching the O.C. and Point Pleasant. Both of them were really good, unfortunately I missed the premiere of Point Pleasant last night but I think I understand it. I wish I had birthmark like that.

We don't have school tomoroww or Monday which is awesome.

Oh yeah, I finally got brain washed into the whole Myspace thing so check it out. I still love Mindsay better, but oh well. Here it is:

http://profiles.myspace.com/users/9938451

Last but not least, a picture I took today:

I have no idea.

-Neil

Current Music: "Zombie" - The Cranberries

Driving, If That's What You Can Call It

lightningphyre — 2005-01-21T06:01:07-05:00

Well, today I had my first driver's lesson. It wasn't that bad and I actually enjoyed it. I'm not too terrible, but you better hope you're nowhere nearby when I go to change lanes...

After my lesson was over, the person we went to pick up for the next lesson was Mizuki, which was cool. I haven't seen her in a while.

-Neil

Current Music: Some song about going crazy when driving by some band, I don't remember which.

They Actually Listen...

lightningphyre — 2005-01-23T09:01:32-05:00

So anyways, the other day I made a suggestion at the little feedback page. Like the next day, I got this e-mail:

Thanks! We have implemented this change. On Sun, 9 Jan 2005 21:33:37 -0500, darks_champion@hotmail.com <darks_champion@hotmail.com> wrote: > I think when you are browsing in your inbox through what your friends have recently said, if you click on one of the entries, you should be taken to that entry exclusively. > > Often times, when you're broswing through older entries, you click on one, but you're taken to the most recent entry on their blog, and you have to take time to search through their old entries for the one you wanted to read. > > This would make it a lot faster for viewing the older entries of your friends. > > Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) > URL: > Cookie: cookietest=; ticket=lightningphyre%3A1466%3A1%3Aq1MigwAJjIh746TG2XcCAg > I thought it was pretty cool that they actually pay attention.-Neil

First Day

lightningphyre — 2005-01-25T11:01:32-05:00

So, today was the first day of second semester. Note: That's good and bad, just like my day.

So, out of my two new classes for semester, I only had one today: P.E. It's good because I got the teacher I wanted, tehy're some pretty cool kids in my class, and we are the only P.E. class that period. Awesome. However, I am once again the only swimmer/water polo-er in my class. Oh well, guess it means I get to school them when we get in the pool, and school them I will.

Uggh, English. Saving grace: It's a new semester. This is what I have been waiting for all year. Now I can prove myself... Hopefully.

Let's not even get into Latin.

I moved the dresser out of my room today. That means I only need to get rid of one more piece of furniture before I get my couch. Does the term savage apply, I dunno...

Me and Caitlin decided Pokemon is the FREAKING BOMB.

-Neil

Current Music: "Zombie" - The Cranberries (Again)

New Month

lightningphyre — 2005-03-01T11:03:55-05:00

Uggh, I haven't updated in forever.

But since it's a new month, I figured, why not turn over a new leaf? So, expect em to return to my blogging heyday.

This entry doesn't count. Wait until tomorrow.

-Neil

I'm Back

lightningphyre — 2005-06-27T07:06:58-05:00

So.

I haven't updated in about three months I think. But, I really want to get back to my Mindsay roots. Plus, today I jsut had to say something.

Today, I came back to Mindsay because I felt a powerful feeling today. It can be summed up with one word: Pez. And that is all. For now.

Expect more soon.

-Neil

Current Music: "Little Ghost" - The White Stripes

Annoyances

lightningphyre — 2005-06-28T12:06:43-05:00

So, tonight I went to swim practice. Normally, I would go to swim practice in the morning, which is when you are supposed to go, but, me being in summer school and all, I attend eveneing practices.

Now, evening practices are normally pretty low key, me, two twelve year olds, and if I'm lucky, another 15-18 year old. Well, tonight there was me, the two twelve year olds, another 15-18 year old, adn two ten year olds. The pool sizzled with exictement; or maybe that was piss.

However, the ten year olds turned out to be the most annoying people I've ever met in my life. I'm so glad I normally don't have to swim with them. I seriously wanted them to drown as i was swimming by, jsut so I could push them farther under.

But, I survived the practice, and came home to do my homework. I know, very anticlimactic. Sumemr school really is the best thing however though. I hate history, and so instead of having to take ten months of it next year, I can take six easy weeks of it. Genius!

-Neil

Current Music: "More Human Than Human" - White Zombie

Grilled

lightningphyre — 2005-06-28T05:06:17-05:00

I'm posting now, before the day is over, because I doubt I'll want to get onlien when I finally get home tonight.

Instead of waking up all at once like I normally do when my alarm goes off, this morning it took about three minutes before I actually heard the alarm. Which was strange, because today I felt really well rested.

It was cold this morning, so instead of my summer usual of shirt, shorts and sandals, I wore shoes, pants, and a long sleeved shirt. Strange.

It seems that not many people at school share my passion for green tea things, such as Snapple Lime Grean Tea or Jamba Juice's Matcha Shots, but I continure to confoudn them all by shwoing up with a different flavor Snapple everyday. Today was Raspberry.

Incase you think I'm boring, don't worry about it. I'm boring myself to death just typing this.

Tonight is swim practice, but finally the spicy pork comes in. Afterwards, the 15-18 year olds ont he team, also known as the Blue Mafia, will be having a barbeque at the club. This is our first attempt at this, and so I'm kinda worried. We're not known for being punctual or on top of things. It should be fun though.

I probably won't be coming home until about 10:30 for the above mentioned reason, and that is why I'm posting now.

I still am consumed with Pe.Z.

-Neil

Current Music: "The Hand That Feeds" - Nine Inch Nails

Now On To Round 2...

lightningphyre — 2005-06-28T10:06:40-05:00

I know I said I probably wouldn't post again tonight because of a swim team barbeque... But, like I said, we're lazy slackers, and we laze and slack so much the barbeque is now a pizzaorderque and it's tomorrow night.

So, now I have plenty of time and nothing to do with it. Practice was heaven tonight compared with last night. The two devils didn't show up and we actually had enough people to warrant two lanes. I also found out that I'm gonna have my own scene for now only known as "Energy Drink Skit" in the future feature film 'The Crooked Finger."

Thursday night... Swim team Camping! I can't wait. Highlights of the summer right there.

Lately I've seriously been thinking about showing up to one of the events that get posted on Myspace in the event section. However, I'm afraid that whoever posts the events really just wants to rob/rape/murder/pillage/plunder whoever shows up. So... Who knows.

-Neil

Current Music: "Revenga" - System of a Down

Lingerie Party

lightningphyre — 2005-07-03T02:07:02-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past few days, I haven't been able to log on to the internet. Somehow, our password got changed and so it took us like three days to not be lazy enough to call SBC and have them fix it. SO anyways, here's a recap.

Thursday:
Thursday afternoon we had a swim meet at Sutter Lawn. It kinda sucked because it was so hot and the pool was hot too, I was sick so my times all sucked, and it was just not the best meet. But we were all pushing through it because we knew afterwards we were going camping! Ah, the glorious swim team campout. The oasis of wonder and fun. They, as Joe might say, can give you the "laughies." Now, I'm not one to brag, but you've never truly experienced the full campout until you've left at 5 or six in the morning to go to work or summer school... Which brings us to Friday.

Friday:
So, I leave the campgrounds at around 5:30 because I need to get home, get ready, and drive to school which happens to be about a trillion miles away. I'm freaking tired and all I have left from ym energy drinks at the campout is one Diet Rockstar (don't ask how I ended up with diet.) I would have much preferred a Red Bull, but I decided to share. Anyways, I couldn't drink my Rockstar right away because that had to last me through school so I was almost asleep at the wheel. I was literally scared that I would fall asleep and die.

Luckily, I made it to school and it was a peaceful day. Mostly all we did was play Risk on the computer. I was never a fan of Risk, but now that we've been playing it in class, it's pretty fun.

The rest of the day was a downhill spiral finally ending up with me going to take a nap at around 4:30 and not waking up until 9:00 on Saturday...

Saturday:
Saturday was blah. All I did was "clean my room." Actually, I spent most of the day watching TV (Match Game, Neverending Story, Troy), reading my new GQ, and playing with random stuff in my room. My room did get clean, however; it just took a while.

So that's what happened when I wasn't able to post. Today's new and I've got nothing to say, maybe I'll come back on later.

-Neil

Current Music: "The Beautiful People" - Marilyn Manson

Rewriting History, One Question At A Time

lightningphyre — 2005-07-03T05:07:59-05:00

On Tuesday I have my first semester final for my summer school class of US History. For preparation, our teacher gave us a 150 question study guide which we have to complete. It's basically way more work than I wanna do, so for the questions I don't knwo the answers to, I've been making them up. Here's some of them:

2: The Spanish Empire in the Americas was not characterized by Irish immigrants.

35: Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election with grace.

39: The Dred Scott decision is very hard to remember.

68: After the battles at Fredericksburg and Chencellorsville, people were buried.

72: The word which best describes the conditions President Johnson set for the former Confederate States' readmission to the union is "fantastic."

73: The Ku Klux Klan employed fear tactics and violence to scare the bejeezus out of African Americans.

74: Moderate Republicans broke with President Johnson and united with the Radical Republicans because they just couldn't take it anymore.

78: Southern Whites who supported the Reconstruction were derisively called "Stupid Southies."

83: At first, Moderate Republicans and Radical Republicans differed over their names.

85: In 1864, Congress laid out its own plan for Reconstruction in the minds of sleeping children.

87: The House voted to impeach Presidnet Johnson after he challenged the world champion to a game of "Rock Paper Scissors."

88: Reconstruction legislatures achieved nirvana after only 3 hours of meditation.

The "age old question" tag was suggested by Mindsay.

-Neil

Current Music: "Butterflies & Hurricanes" - Muse

Yee-haw; The Rodeo

lightningphyre — 2005-07-04T02:07:42-05:00

Every year around the 4th of July, the rodeo comes to town. Every year around the 4th of July, my family buys six tickets and my sister and I each take a friend to this exhibition of Americana culture.

This year, since she was "too busy" to go last year, I took my dear friend Katie Ahrens. It was freaking sweltering at the rodeo, but we managed to still have fun. I still feel bad for the Asian lady who thought I wanted eight teriyaki bowls when I clearly said "A teriyaki bowl." I left her a tip.

Some advice we discovered while standing in line for ice cream: Do not wear hiking boots with tall sock and long pants with the legs rolled up half way up your shin. It is not attractive.

Some more advice: Do not call your friend at around 4:00, tell him rodeos are for nerds, and then run into him at the rodeo.

-Neil

Current Music: "Dead Man's Party" - Oingo Boingo

Effigies Aflame

lightningphyre — 2005-07-05T05:07:37-05:00

As you may know, yesterday was a little thing called the Fourth of July.

My mom woke me up at around 9:30 to tell me that Jimmy was on the phone. After talking to him and showering, I headed on down to his place so we could finish building our massive popsicle stick man which we were going to burn. We worked pretty good for a while before our first distraction, much better than last week, and when we were finished, Effy, as he came to be called, was about 3'7".

In addition to the work we did, we also had plenty of time to screw around, of course. Soooo, we built popsicle stick weapons and fought with them. Mine was much cooler. We also played R.O.S.E. and baked cookies, but the cookies got kinda burned. They were edible, but burned.

Later that night, everyone started arriving for our party which we haev every year. All in all, I'd say there was about 30 people. Jimmy, Shea, Adam, Dan and Corina all showed up. Eric showed up for liek ten minutes too, blahhh. Fast forward to the good stuff.

When we started lighting the fireworks it was awesome. Everyone brings fireworks so we have basically a bajillion pounds of explosives which we burn. It probably took us an hour or so just to burn all the fireworks. Then came the big finale, Effy.

Effy was wonderful. In fact, he was incredible, a burning glory. After he was done burning, we gathered his ashes into jars I had bought at the Dollar Tree and pretended they were urns.

AndthenIwenttobed.TheEnd.

-Neil

Current Music: "Whip It" - DEVO

P.S. The tag "burn baby burn" was suggested by Mindsay and I loved it.

The Thinking Man

lightningphyre — 2005-07-06T05:07:34-05:00

Today was a day for thought. Kinda.

You see, every night for summer school a different group takes the chapter and makes a 40 slide long Powerpoint presentation on it and a game for the class to play. They then present the chapter the next day and we play the game. All in all, it's supposed to take an hour. The plus for the presenters though is that they don't have to take the test that day and they don't have to take notes during the presentation, so they get lots of free time.

Last night it was my group's turn (again) and we had to do two chapters. Now, this is rare, but not unheard of. Anyways, our presentation alone took an hour and a half today, meaning plenty of free time for me to sit and stare and think.

First Off: I like when people on Mindsay post posts that are like three sentences long and completely random. I think they're funny. I wish I could do posts like that, but I've tried and failed miserably many times.

Secondly: I really like green tea things. Today my Snapple was Lime Green Tea. But I got the worst Snapple fact ever; it was: "Snapple Fact 475: Place rubber bands on the end of coat hangers to keep clothes from falling off." Hello, I wanted a fact, not advice. Jeez, the Snapple lady loses my respect. But I'll still say nice things about them if they say nice things about me.

Third Up: I better take some serious Motrin today. Why, ask you? I have an orthodontist appointment and for some reason my teeth already hurt. maybe it's because they are anticipating the pain. Sigh.

Fourrrrrth: Gerogie O'Keefe is disgusting. 'Nuff said.

My other thoughts escape me.

-Neil

Current Music: "Numa Numa Iei" - O-Zone

Give Me Novacaine

lightningphyre — 2005-07-06T11:07:02-05:00

So I broke my cardinal rule for the orthodontist/dentist: I wore flip-flops. I never wear flip-flops to places where I get work done on my teeth because curling my toes helps with the pain and you can't really do it unless you're in good shoes... And today was a bad day too.

After my ortho appointment though I went to Jamba Juice and ordered a Sour Apple. I had to help the girl taking my order though because she forgot how to ring it in. The guy who gave it to me, you know, the one that calls out your name, besides being too happy, didn't recognize it as a Sour Apple and instead just called it a "souped-up Matcha Blast." Which was kinda cool I guess.

If I get a job at Jamba Juice I'm gonna invent a Red Bull flavor.

Swim practice sucked, for some reason I'm really slow all of a sudden.

-Neil

Current Music: "Give Me Novacaine" - Green Day

Puking In Court Is Bad

lightningphyre — 2005-07-09T01:07:45-05:00

Yesterday, that being Thursday, was pretty awesome. Today; not so awesome.

I turned in applications for jobs at both Starbucks and Jamba Juice yesterday. The cashier at Jamba Juice just took my application but when I was standing in line at Starbucks the manager saw me with an application so we talked. She said it's a busy week and she's got an interview coming up but she gave me her card and wants me to call her on Wednesday. That's pretty cool; I'd rather work at Jamba Juice but Starbucks would definitely be nice.

Yesterday was the Swim-A-Thon for the rec swim team I'm on. I don't really have much to say about it other than "Death" and "Time Goes Slower Under Water." But I had to show up for the Swim-A-Thon, however, because afterwards the Blue Mafia, as we older kids call ourselves, got to spend the night at the club we swim at. This was pretty much the most awesome thing of the week. Imagine having Disneyland all to yourself at night, but on just a slightly smaller scale.

Anyways, we were forced to go to sleep at like 3:00 AM, which was fine with me because I had to get up and leave at 6:00 in order to get to school. So school was a bitch because I was tired on an epic scale. We started watching this wierd movie called "Red Dawn" which is about World War III. Yes, III.

After school was the worst, however. My dad picked me up and we went to the courthouse because of the speeding ticket I got about two weeks ago. I was afraid they would take my license because I'm still in my probationary first six months, but luckily I only had to pay a fine and I'm taking traffic school. Uggh. I thought I was gonna throw up at the courthouse I was so nervous.

When I got home I took a four hour nap after watching like 10 minutes of I Love the 90s (94). I had already seen that episode so I didn't mind going to sleep. I'm still really tired, but oh well.

-Neil

P.S. Bonnie is the best hider ever.

Current Music: "I Love You Cause I Have To" - Dogs Die In Hot Cars

Crayon

lightningphyre — 2005-07-09T02:07:45-05:00

You are

What Rejected Crayon Are You?

Possibly Beyond Pissed

lightningphyre — 2005-07-09T09:07:22-05:00

I know, the title sound wierd; How can you possibly be beyond pissed. Well, you can, and here's how.

My dad recently purchased a computer from a guy in his office who builds computers himself and payed the guy to set up a wireless network with the new computer and our main computer. So, when he brings home the new comp, I say, "There's no way that thing's better than the comp we currently have. You wasted money." Turns out I was right. So... We're going to keep our old computer as the main computer and give the new computer to my elevn year old sister. Wait, what?!?! But that's not half of it. That was two weeks ago.

The guy takes home the computers to install the network thingy or whatever and it takes him years. He finishes the new computer but is then updating our older computer or cleaning it out or something. So we take back the new computer a week ago and leave the old computer with him because he wasn't done with it yet.

Anyways, my dad brings home our old computer last night and today I decide to hook it up. It's Windows XP so it has different accounts on it. I turn it on... My account and my sister's account are missing. My mom's account has a new icon and there's now a dad account. Hmm. I check the accounts, NONE OF MY DOCUMENTS, PICTURES, SONGS OR OTHER FILES ARE THERE. I SEARCH FOR THEM, THEY ARE NON-EXISTANT. My dad calls the guy and says that the guy said he spent a day and a half saving all my files. He says tehy are there. I knwo they are not.

Hopefully, he saved them to a zip drive or somethign and forgot to transfer them back on to the computer. Hopefully. Because I don't see how my sister getting a new computer and me losing four years of files is fair.

-Neil

Current Music: "Kryptonite" - Three Doors Down

Intro

lightningphyre — 2005-07-10T06:07:45-05:00

Today I changed the intro to my blog.

It used to say: "Imagine there's no heaven, It's easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky..." Alyric from John Lennon's "Imagine." I used this intro because of my overall theme and atheistic views.

I have now changed it to: "My Word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will..." I find this rionic because it is from the Bible. Also, I think it is fitting for a blog because my blog is my words, and hopefully they'll make you se and understand what I want you to see and understand.

Let me know which you prefer.

-Neil

Random Tangents

lightningphyre — 2005-07-12T02:07:18-05:00

Lately I've been staying up as late as possible in order to train myself to need less sleep. I'm one of those people who is able to stay up all night but in order not to piss everyone off I need to get to bed by 10:00. I read that Napoleon Bonaparte only needed four hours of sleep. That's probably how he found the time to conquer so much. So I figured, I too could accomplish things if I slept more. Lately I've been going to sleep at around 1:00 and getting up at 6:00. So far so good, but it'll probably bite me in the ass soon.

Tonight I went over to Matt's house and met up with a bunch of the Elders (15-18yo kids) from the swim team. We're planning this awesome savage/Lion King inspired thing for our part of the parade at swim championships. It's gonna be sweet. More later.

Today I had to go without a Snapple for lunch, we were all out... So I had a Coke with Lime instead. But a few hours ago I went to the store and stocked up on Lime Green Tea. Awesome! I hope I win something, or at least get some cool facts.

I made up a rap/remix the other day... It goes:

This is the REMIX!
What, what, what
Andalites in space
Doilies made of lace
Mud on your face
Gotta win this race
Uhh, yeah, uhh BITCHES!

I was kinda in an Animorphs mood, hence the Andalite reference. Points to whoever recognized it!

-Neil

Current Music: "The Circle of Life" - Lion King Soundtrack

P.S. (7/11 11:19) I am this close to hyperventilating in anticipation of the new Harry Potter book!

OMFG

lightningphyre — 2005-07-13T12:07:56-05:00

I just found out that all the files I had saved on my computer are officially lost forever. I am so mad I really don't even know what to say. Like, I can't express my anger...

I'm just really pissed that teh records of the past four years of my life now no longer exist. It seems a high price for Mozilla Firefox.

Damn.

-Neil

POSSIBLE HARRY POTTER LEAK!!!

lightningphyre — 2005-07-14T10:07:19-05:00

I have no idea if this is true or not, and I hope it's not, because if it is it spoiled the book for me.

In my Harry Potter group on Myspace, a person posted an image of what appears to be a caption from page 606 of the sixth Harry Potter book. It was the belief of many that this image was fake, as I believe, but there's always a chance.

The link to the image is this: http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/8766/harrypotter0ck.jpg.

DO NOT CLICK IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE BOK SPOILED FOR YOU IN THE OFF CHANCE THAT THIS SNAPSHOT IS REAL.

Searching for Horcruxes

lightningphyre — 2005-07-18T12:07:38-05:00

So, as you may have (not) noticed, I haven't posted in the past two days... This is because I was insanely busy.

Friday, 7/15/05:

After school on Friday I immediately headed to Jimmy's house to begin preparing for the Harry Potter Midnight Magic Party. We made shirts that had the Dark Mark on the back, the Ravenclaw crest on the sleeve, and a saying on the front. Mine said "I'm Down With The Dark Lord" and Jimmy's said "Voldemort's My Homeboy."

We also bought these strange green shorts that felt and looked like Astro Turf because they were A) cheap, B) at T. J. Maxx, and C) green, a color associated with the Dark Lord and Death Eaters.

I then left his house to go to a job interview at Starbucks. When I walked in Laura was working which was cool, because I later heard that she gave me a really good recommendation. The manager, Celeste said she was really interested after the interview and Laura later told me that they were really interested in hiring me. I've got a follow-up interview tomorrow. Even if I don't get hired, it'll be worth it for the free Mint Mocha Chip Frappuchino I got. Mmm.

Then I hooked back up with Jimmy and we headed over to Barnes & Noble. It was only 7:30 and the par-tay started at 9:00 so we got dinner at Chipotle. You have no idea how funny it is to walk into a restaurant dressed like Death Eaters while holding wands and to occasionally curse each other. Everyone's eyes were on us. My dream come true... HAHAHA

We then headed back over to Barnes & Noble for the par-tay and met up with Lucas, Kaitlin, Emily, Kim, Anna and Mia. It was a blast and finally came midnight...

As we were standing near the front of the line with ten minutes till midnight left, the air was electric. And the freaks were breeding. I love the midnight party's because they bring out the fans, fanatics and freaks. Now, I amt he first to admit I am a Harry Potter freak, but I am not a general freak. There were plenty of general freaks that were annoying the hell out of us; especially this one crasian.

But anyways, we were counting down and I was screaming my lungs out, and then, midnight...

Saturday, 7/16/05:

We got our books at about 12:20 and we also got three empty boxes that the books came in. I was ecstatic. I read until 4:00 in the morning, and was planning on staying up until I finished, but my eyes wouldn't focus on the page, everything kept getting blurry, so I went to sleep.

Two hours later I woke up to go the swim meet against Del Norte, our newest rivals, where I continued on my Harry Potter binge. We ended up winning the meet and I got so much closer to the end of the book.

I finally finished at about 9:00 at night and was amazed. This newest Harry Potter book is amazing and my newest favorite. 'Nuff said.

Today, 7/17/05:

Today I went to work on my decade’s project for summer school with Diana, Lauren and Kelly. We have the 90's and our presentation is most definitely going to be the best. We even got Warheads (the sour candy) to hand out (They came out in the 90s).

After we were done, since Diana had to go to work at Coldstone and I hate Coldstone, she told me she would give me her shift meal (AKA FREE ice cream) and make me something really good to convince me about the greatness of Coldstone. Well, I ended up with a Cheesecake Fantasy except with coconut instead of blueberries and I must admit I enjoyed it.

Besides that, today all I did was download the pictures from the par-tay to my computer, so maybe soon I'll put some up in my Photobucket so you all (3 people who read my blog?) can see.

-Neil

Current Music: "Bittersweet Symphony" - The Verve

P.S. I realized that the suggested tags are just tags that other people have used before. For example, one of my suggested tags was "Harry Potter Leak", which was a tag I had invented with my last post. Hmm, de ja vu.

The Workforce... Maybe?

lightningphyre — 2005-07-18T08:07:26-05:00

So today I had my second interview with Starbucks. It was supersonicly fast.

My interview was set to be at 3:00 with the assistant manager (?) Meaghan. So I arrived at around 2:45 and we probably started the interview at 2:50. I was outta Starbucks by 3:00, talk about speedy! But I'm pretty sure it was a good speedy, as I felt the interview went well and I'm supposed to call them after I get out of school tomorrow.

In addition to giving some really good answers, Meaghan actually knew what Jesuit was as opposed to Celeste, because her brother had graduated from Jesuit and she had graduated from Loretto. I mean, there's no point in going to Jesuit if potential employers don't recognise it for what it is.

So I'm hoping I get hired, because that'll be awesome, I'll finally be getting some money (not to mention tips) and I need cash to pay for gas since my parents are only paying for it when I'm in school. Life's tough, I know. SARCASM

Nothing else really happened today, pretty slow Monday if you ask me. My free Mint Mocha Chip Frappuchino was wonderful, as always.

-Neil

Current Music: "Sober" - Tool

Top Hit and Hit That

lightningphyre — 2005-07-18T10:07:48-05:00

So today I was playing around wiht Google and I learned that my blog is the top result for the search term "lightningphyre". Actually all the hits relate to me in someway... I guess I have a monopoly.

Now, when you type "lightningphyre" into the search box, Google thinks that you meant to say "lightningfree." If you search for "lightningfree" you get a lot of adult website results... Hmm.

-Neil

Current Music: "Paranoid Android" - Radiohead

Intensity

lightningphyre — 2005-07-20T01:07:51-05:00

I just found this picture of me doing breastsroke in our swim meet against the Sacramento Stingrays online.

I sure do look intense...

-Neil

Current Music: "Sweet Dreams" - Annie Lennox (Or was it Eurythmics?)

Caffiene and Wizard Rock

lightningphyre — 2005-07-30T10:07:25-05:00

Lately there's been no updates... I've been busy?

Anyways, this morning I went to Starbucks because, as you may or may not know, I recently applied for a job. Anyways, they wanted me to come in today because they wanted to hire me and I had to fill out paperwork. So I did. What would you have done?

So, three other new hirees and I spent the better part of two and a half hours today drinking free drinks and filling out forms. It was awesome, we even did a coffee tasting, because that's like part of our job or something. We tasted Sumatran, which, by the way, has a low acidity and earthy taste. It's kinda muddied though.

The best part, however, was that the 2.5 hours we were there was paid! Money for getting free stuff and signing my name! I could quit now and be ahead of the game.

By the time we were done, it was 3:00. Now, this sucked, because Harry and the Potters, the best band from Boston, was playing a nearby library at 2:00. I had been wanting to go to this concert since around mid-May and I was crushed to find out I wouldn't be able to make it. My mom suggested we go anyways, as we might catch them packing up.

We got to the library at about 3:30 and luckily they were packing up their instruments and merchandise. I bought both of their albums, a Punk Logo shirt, and a Save Ginny! shirt. I got both the guys to sign both my albums and I rocked out on the way home.

I'm dissappointed I missed the concert, since they barely ever come out here to California, but at least I got some awesome stuff.

-Neil

Current Music: "These Days Are Dark" - Harry and the Potters

MindSayBot Update

lightningphyre — 2005-07-31T04:07:47-05:00

I hate Mindsaybot...

Pershing Rapid Learners of 2001 Reunion

lightningphyre — 2005-08-01T01:08:49-05:00

So, today I woke up at around 11:00 because my dad came bargin in and informed me that I would be painting the front porch railing today. Fun. I was ecstatic...

Well, it sucked, but it was sorta OK because it gave me a chance to listen to my two new super awesome Harry and the Potters CDs. Also, a tip: Never try to paint metal, it's practically impossible.

After the painting party I got ready to go the Pershing Reunion party that Andrew had been cooking up for about a month. For those of you who don't know, for second through sixth grade I was part of a special program called Rapid Learners. Our class was the same class every year, and so because of that we occasionally get together and have "reunions." I went to the reuniond with Vanessa, Josh and Emily and that was pretty much it. Not really any highlights. None.

I got home at around 8:00 and my mom informs me that we are playing dominoes as a family. What? Anyways, my sister and I suffered through three games before finalyl being allowed to retreat to our computers. Thank god.

Tomorrow I get to call Celeste, my new boss, at Starbucks and see if she managed to find a day when me and my fellow new employees can attend a class. It's gonna be impossible to learn everything... Uggh.

-Neil

Current Music: "Sunglasses At Night" - Corey Hart

Culinary Delights and Paint On My Hands

lightningphyre — 2005-08-01T07:08:12-05:00

Last night, at about 11:50pm, I was eating. Normally I dont eat this late, but I just felt really hungry last night. I also was eating because my dad for some reason decided, that even though I don't have a schedule for work yet, I shouldn't be going to sleep at 2:00am, so he ordered me in bed by midnight. I don't see why I should conform to this new schedule as during the school year I was going to bed at 2 in the morning and getting up at 6. I doubt I'm gonna need to get up that early for work.

But back to the eating. I've known this for quite some time, but only last night did it hit me: Dean's Ranch Dip combined with any type of Dorito's is a culinary masterpiece. That's right, you heard me. ANY TYPE OF DORITO'S. DEAN'S RANCH DIP. Run out and buy some now. To maximise the experience, however, I reccommend Nacho Cheesier, Spicier Nacho, Salsa, or Salsa Verde Dorito's.

Today I had to call my new boss at Starbuck's to see if she had made our schedules yet and if she had found us a class to go to. Being new Starbuck's employees, my fellow baristas and I have to attend this like day long class to teach us how to make drinks or something. Anyways, my boss hadn't made my schedule yet, so she's just gonna call me back.

I did some more painting on the porch railing today, but quit after awhile because it was just too dang boring. Kinda like this entry... Even the internet holds nothing exciting for me today. This entry didn't even give me any interesting Suggested Tags.

-Neil

Current Music: "This Time" - Depswa

The Search for Our Holy Grail

lightningphyre — 2005-08-02T11:08:39-05:00

Last night, my dad and I went to the club to work out. Wait; let me fix that: Last night, my dad dragged me to the club and made me work out, something I hate. I was pissed but as I was getting a drink from the drinking fountain I saw Matt, David, and Kyle outside. Being the social gadfly that I am, I went out and said hi.

Quickly I learned that, unbeknownst to me, there had been a pizza night planned for the Blue Mafia (oldest swim team members) to be held last night. I was excited and quickly gained permission to attend from my dad.

At the actual pizza party were Amy, Eryka, Emily, Bonnie,, Laura, Ryan, Matt, David, Kyle and I. It was a pretty good time and I killed fricking everybody in sneakers. I just cannot be caught. At ten when the club closed Matt, Amy, Eryka, Bonnie, Emily and I decided the party had just begun and that we wanted to keep hanging out. After quickly coming up with a story that we were going to see a movie at the drive-ins that started at midnight and then planning on heading to Bonnie's house afterwards, we were set to go.

Now, of course, we did not go to the drive-ins. Instead, we started searching for what to us was the Holy Grail at about 11:00. We weren't having much luck however and we almost gave up. But then, Matt's cell phone started to ring and the caller I.D. said "No I.D." Now, this is not that rare of an occurance, so he answered the phone.

For some reason, Matt always has speaker phone on, so when he answered, we all heard the ladies voice. Now, you all have talked to that fine woman who does the recorded voice, haven't you? Well, when Matt answered the phone, we heard "I'm sorry you're having trouble. Please try again later. Goodbye." We started freaking out. How did the recording lady call us, and how did she know we were on a quest?! It was insane!

We persevered for hours, and finally at about 3:30 we found the Grail through the help of a dear friend out in Rocklin. As we were driving back towards Folsom, somehow we got lost. Eventually however, Matt recognised that "this was the way we get home from Dyre Lane." We turned onto the street and were on our merry way.

We soon realized, we being Matt, Eryka, Emily and I, that we were actually headed towards Dyre Lane instead of away from it. For those of you who don't know, Dyre Lane is this run-down trashy hick street that the KKK is rumored to hold their local meetings at. Occasionally we've driven down it for fun, and since we were so close, we decided to go. We decided not to warn Amy and Bonnie, who were following in the car behind us.

When we reached Pfe street, the street before Dyre, two things happened. In our car, we felt the pump of adrenaline. In the car ebhind us, two girls started screaming hysterically. We made it down Dyre Lane with no incidents, but Bonnie and Amy were hyperventialting and gibbering by the end of it.

When we got back towards Orangevale, we decided we were way too hungry to pass up a visit to Denny's. We arrived at our favorite Denny's and spent a good deal of time hangin/eating there. Matt kept screaming about how the painting near our table would look good in his living room.

We noticed that it was now 5:00, and Bonnie's mom would be waking up in 45 minutes. We needed to hurry and get back to Bonnie's! First, however, we needed to return to the club to get Bonnie's car. When we got to the club, Bonnie's car wouldn't start, as if that was a surprise. But to our horror, Bonnie realized her mother had called her half an hour ago wanting to know where she was. We blew right past this road block however with some quick thinking about multiple car troubles and going to Eryka's house instead.

At around 5:30 we decided we wanted to watch the sunrise. Heading to the Fair Oaks bridge, we spent a good deal of time and had a good deal of fun laying on the bridge watching the sun come up.

The night finally over, we headed back to the club to sleep in our cars until we could go home at would seem like a normal time.

Select pictures from our night can be found here: http://photobucket.com/albums/v132/lightningphyre/Pics/Night%20at%20Bonnies/

This story from Amy's point of view can be found here: flyinghippos939

-Neil

Current Music: "Don't Tread On Me" - 311

Spending Money Like It's Diseased

lightningphyre — 2005-08-05T02:08:59-05:00

Today I woke up at about noon and called Celeste, my boss from Starbucks. I had to call to find out if she had made my schedule yet and I found out that she had. So, she told my schedule for about the next two weeks and that I have my training class or whatever on the 20th. That kinda sucks because that means I work eight shifts before then... Meaning I'll porbably just be stocking shelves for those eight shifts... Oh well.

I saw a show on t.v. today called Trailer Fabulous. This show was fricking insane. For those of you who have never seen it, it's like a Queer Eye for the Straight Guy condensed into half an hour and for people that live in trailer parks. I just about died laughing and can;t wait to see another episode.

My mom and I went shopping tonight for various things. First wes topped by Barnes & Noble to buy my summer reading. School starts in like three weeks, I guess I better get cracking. On the agenda is The Scarlet Letter for English 3 AP and Vector for Chem H.

Next we headed next door to Jamba Juice because my mom needed to buy a gift card for some reason. I got a Sour Apple, my favorite drink ever, and proceeded happily on my way.

Then we went to the mal because I needed clothes for work (dress code) and clothes for life/school. We ended upa t Pac Sun and I got all the stuff I need for work plus two pairs of jeans, a shirt, a pair of shorts and a jacket. All pretty awesome and the total was pretty cheap as the jeans, shirt and shorts were on sale/clearance.

Other than that, my day was pretty eneventful; assuming you can call the above events.

-Neil

Current Music: "Can't Repeat" - Offspring

At the Movies

lightningphyre — 2005-08-06T02:08:10-05:00

Today I was in a real piss-ant mood... I'm not even sure if piss-ant is a real term, but I think I heard soemone say it once, and that's good enough for me. Anyways, I think just having to be home with my sister around is driving me crazy. Plus my mom sent me to pick up her dry-cleaning and I had to spend my own money to buy duct tape to tape down newspaper under the railing that I'm painting. I was just in a real piss-ant mood...

My family decided it would be a good idea to see a movie tonight and so, after much lobbying on my part to not see "Sky High", we ended up settling on "Bad News Bears." This made me happy as I actually wanted to see this movie.

I was even happier when we went to Chipotle for dinner; not because it was Chipotle, but because it was next to the Coldstone my friend works at. I dropped in for a few minutes to say hi and then we headed over to the theaters.

Now, I hate going to the movies with my family. One, it's my family. Two, my dad's a "talker". Three, my mom is one of those people who goes "Oh!" really lud and claps. Four, I just plain hate my sister. So, being with the family pretty much blew, but the movie was pretty darn good. I'd say the family wasn't enough to ruin the movie, but the movie wasn't as good as it could have been without them.

During my second shower of the day today I had my shower radio on. I was listening and then this awesome song came on. However, due to the reception of a radio in the shower and the overall fact that it was a song, I couldn't really understand the lyrics. So my hopes of finding it through my normal Google methods were smashed. I was lucky enough to hear that it was by Death Cab for Cutie. I wasn't able to hear the title though.

When I got from the movies, I headed over to Kwod.net and checked out their New Music section, hoping I'd find a song by Death Cab. Lo and behold! there was a song on the lsit by the band. I'm not very familiar with DCfC, however, and wasn;t sure if this was the song or not.

So, I opened up Windows Media Player, searched for the song, plugged in my headphones (since we need to buy new speakers for the computer) and pressed paly. Miraculously, this thirty second clip I was hearing was the song I was searchign for. Praise the internet! By the way, the song was "Soul Meets Body."

-Neil

Current Music: "Soul Meets Body" - Death Cab for Cutie

Sock Her

lightningphyre — 2005-08-06T08:08:12-05:00

My sister happens to play soccer. She doesn't play rec, and she doesn't play the most advanced league, she's in the middle. I think that's Select, but it might be Comp; I always get them confused. Anyways, this weekend her team is in a two day tournament, and I got dragged to her two game today.

At the first game, I read about five pages of what I later learned was nto actually part of my summer reading, but in the same book as my summer reading. I also slept. At the second game, I actually kinda payed attention, but it was boring because in the second half my sister's team tried their best not to score.

However, the real interesting stuff happened not at the soccer field, but at the little places I went to during the day. For example, during the first game, my dad and I went to get breakfast at Carls Jr. Now, I would not reccommend Carls Jr. for breakfast, but if you are eating your morning meal there I would reccommend the Loaded Breakfast Burrito sans salsa. That means without.

By the by, I was wearing my Power Rangers "Megazord Power" shirt today. The fat middle-aged woman working behind the counter at Carls Jr. started telling me and my dad how her son loves Power Rangers and jokingly said she wanted my shirt. We did the whole courteous laugh thing and waited for the trainee taking our order to punch it into the computer. BUt she went farther, and continued to say she wanted my shrit, getting louder and more fanatical. I actually thought she was gonna lug her heavy frame over the counter and rip the shirt off of me.

Finally we got our little number thingy and went to sit down. Later, when I went to get ketchup, since the lady was "mad" that I wouldn't give up my shirt, she "jokingly" yelled "Get your hand outta there!" as I reache dintot he ketchup packet container. When we were finally ready to leave, I told my dad that we were going through the back door and he said, "Oh. I know why."

After the second game, as my dad, mom and I were driving home sans Katie (that means without), we decided to go to Jamba Juice. Well, Jamba Juice was hopping and we had to wait like twenty minutes to finally get our drinks. But it was okay because a Jamba Juice Sour Apple is like the elixir of life, especially on a frickin' hot day like today.

Also, I helped Corina set up a Mindsay today. Find her lame-ass over at subzer0.

-Neil

Current Music: "Feel Good Inc." - Gorillaz

Mouth Orgasms

lightningphyre — 2005-08-08T12:08:35-05:00

This afternoon I finished painting the railing that I've been painting for a week. This is awesome because finally I'm done with that S.O.B. and I can forget about it. I also get $225 for doing it, unfortunately that all goes towards paying off my ticket. This all has nothing to do with the title of this entry, however.

Since today (tommorrow?) was Jimmy's birthday, his family took me and him out to Benihana's for dinner. Now, you must understand, Benihana's is my favorite restaurant. I could eat there every day and die happy. For those of you who have never been, I advise you go. Right now. My dinner was delectable, as always, and I thought I was in heaven.

We left, headed out to the car, and Jimmy opened the present I had considerately wrapped for him in a Victoria's Secret bag. We had fun playing with the Zumies Gift Card because it has all this awesome stuff you can do with it. Then, we took the tissue paper and made ourselves ome super hero capes.

Next we headed to Baskin Robbins because we wanted to make fun of Eric. Oh Eric, what a socially inept freak you are. Well, when we got to the 31 he wasn't working, but we got ice cream anyways. I got this sundae called a Thunder 'N' Lightning which was really good. Baskin Robbins was really good.

Finally, here I am, sitting at home, typing to whomever may read this.

-Neil

Current Music: "Two Princes" - Spin Doctors

What Kind of Frapp?

lightningphyre — 2005-08-09T01:08:11-05:00

There's a first time for everything, and today was my first day working as a barista at Starbuck's. And, although I was pretty scared going into it, it wasn't that bad.

When I got there ten minutes before 4:00, I saw that also working with me today was another new employee, it being his first day also. After learning how to punch in, we got out our frickin' huge training text and started reading up on how to keep the "cafe" area clean. After a few table wipe downs and a cursory tour of the condiment bar, we were ready to start making cold beverages.

After becoming experts at making whipped cream (only one mistake on my part), frappuccino mix, UBB, various teas and the art of brewing coffee, we actualyl started making drinks. I haven't yet decided whether I prefer making frappuccinos or shaking up tea drinks, but I think both of them are fun.

That's the great part about working at Starbucks, it's good money for easy work, and so far it seem pretty fun. Plus, of course, there's all the free drinks. Unfortunately, I'll probably end up like one of those caffeine addicts. Oh well.

-Neil

Current Music: "Reach for the Sky" - Social Distortion

TBT: Totally Boring Tuesday

lightningphyre — 2005-08-10T01:08:51-05:00

I went in for work today, and after punching in I learned I would be doing Technology Based Training in order to learn how to use the registers. Now, for those of you who don't know, TBT basically meansthat you are trained by a program on the computer.

What I soon learned, however, is that it also means you are going to be bored out of your mind for approximately two and a half hours. That's right, I spent more than half of my shift in front of the computer, learning. Now, I'm not ocmplaining too much; I'd be willing to get paid to sit any day. Plus, after completing the training I was ready to start actually taking customer orders.

I wasn't a total failure at operating the register when it came to taking orders, but I wasn't that great either. I think I did pretty good for my first day. I kinda feel sorry for the people who had to wait while I tried to figure out how to ring up things like Venti Non-fat Sugar Caramel Macchiattos. Jeez.

Vanessa came in with a couple of peeps today, but she didn't order anything. I guess she thinks she's too good for my register using. Ah well...

-Neil

Current Music: "Jerk It Out" - Caesars

Worst Day/Good Day

lightningphyre — 2005-08-11T11:08:27-05:00

Holy Shit.

Today was the worst day of my life. I'm sitting downstairs at 2:00 pm, watching my Super Password, eating breakfast, when the door bell rings. My dog starts barking like crazy, like he always does, and I run to the door. Now, mind you, it took me about two seconds to get to the door. When I open the door, however, I see a package sitting on the porch and the mailman kinda half jogging back to his car. I freak and slam the door shut.

If you don't know, the mailman terrifies me. I try to avoid him at all costs, and even if I'm out front when he drops off the ail, I pretend not to notice him.

I waited for a few minutes, cracked the door open, saw he was gone, and picked up the package. Now, I am not sure if it is tyheir policy to just ring the doorbell and go back to their car, or if he went back to the car because he heard my dog bark, but either way I am grateful.

If I had opened that door and he had been standing there I would have frozen. He would have said he had a delivery, I'd be standing there. He'd ask if I was ok, I'd be standing there. He'd ask if he needed to call 9-1-1, I'd be standing there. He'd call 9-1-1, I'd be standing there. By the time the ambulance showed up, I'd probably have passed out from lack of oxygen.

Even though I did not actually have to face the mailman, it was still the worst day of my life.

Luckily, days evloved and it became a better day.

My coworkers at Starbuck's know that whipped cream is not my friend. I do not like making it or spraying it. I always spill the heavy whipping cream when pouring it, I get frostbite from shaking the containers, and my hands end up hurting. I'm unable to spray whipped cream without it either coming out liquid or attacking the drink witht the force of a rhino. I do not like whipped cream.

Today whipped cream and I managed to reach an understanding, at least on the spraying part. It sprays nicely for me, and I don't cuss it out. It works out nicely.

I foudn a new enemy though: the drive-thru window. Whenever it decides to open automatically for me, it closes on me. And whenever it decides to not open for me, I end up running into it thinking it's going to open. I hate the drive-thru window, and it makes me unpleasant to the people in the cars. Oh well.

Today I learned how to operate the espresso bar, so I think I am techinically able to make every type of drink. Iced teas are still the easiest, however. Whenever someone orders an iced tea or an iced tea lemonade, I smile. I think I'm gonna kick it up a notch by learning how to flip the shakers.

-Neil

Current Music: something by Art of Noise

P.S. (8/11/05 10:11PM) Melon + Raspberry DOES NOT = Bubble Gum

Mini Golf and Broken Flip Flops

lightningphyre — 2005-08-12T07:08:16-05:00

All I've typed so far is the title and I've all ready got four sugested tags. Awesome!

Anyways, today I actually got up kinda early because I was gonna meet my friends at Panda Express and then go mini-golfing with them. Well, Jimmy needed a ride and he told me to bring my Aqua CD with me, so i picked him up and we danced to Aqua. Wait, that sentence is not nearly enough.

For those of you who live under rocks, Aqua is the Swedish-pop band that had the one-hit wonder "Barbie Girl." Now, imagine, two sixteen year old boys raving while driving down the road, Aqua blaring throught he speakers. Ah, it puts a smile on my face just to think about it.

We met up with bassplyr1305 at Panda Express, and soon realized that no one else was gonna show up. Flakes. We got food anyways, though, and to my horror I learned that it was only Caitlin's third time eating Panda, and Jimmy had never eaten there. I managed to make a Harry Potter analogy but I dont remember how.

Next we went to Sunrise Fun Center to play mini-golf. Picture the best mini-golf place you've been to, now remove all the castles, windmills, loop-de-loops and everythign else that makes it special. If there's still some cool stuff in your picture of it, reduce it all to eighteen holes that are practically straight. This is Sunrise Fun Center. It is the worst mini-golf place ever. But we still had fun.

As we were playing air hockey though, I stepped to pick up the puck that Jimmy had knocked off and the little strap thing broke on my flip-flops. Well, because of the way they are made, I couldn't fix them. So I had to walk like I was handicapped, which was good, since Caitlin had decided to use her fake hanidcapped placard and park in the handicapped spot. Karma's a bitch though, she ended up backing into some cement pole.

I took Jimmy then, and we once again went crazy to the goodness of Aqua. We spent a good half an hour at his house burning me a copy of the t.A.T.u. album... You know who they are, they're the Russian lesbians. Ah, we have wierd taste in music. At his house though, Jimmy accidentally stepped on my good flip-flop while I was walking, and BROKE IT! I now have two broken flip-flops. What a bad day.

-Neil

Current Music: "They're Not Gonna Get Us" - t.A.T.u.

Charcoal and Sanitizer

lightningphyre — 2005-08-14T05:08:09-05:00

Saturday 8/13/05:

I woke up at 10 this morning, and it took me a few minutes to figure out where I was. This because I spent the night at a friend's house. The rest of my family is in Mendocino this weekend because of my sister's soccer torunament, but I stayed home because I had to work. I have not eaten a single meal at this friend's house, and I left ten minutes after waking up to go back to my house. My parents are fine with trhis, they just don't want me sleeping at my house. Huh?

Anyways, I got home and immediately left to go to Aaron Brothers. I've been telling my mom that i've been working on a piece of art for her since Christmas, and since her birthday is in two days, I figured, I'll try and crank it out. Note: I just started today. Anyways, I had to buy Workable Fixatif since it was going to be a charcoal drawing (the fastest kind), but I ended up buying some willow charcoal sticks and a kneaded eraser as well. I think I'm going to charge my dad for the supplies.

When I got back home I found an image online (see it here) and immediately got to work. I worked for about wo hours, and I would say I'm about a quarter done with the piece. Meaning I have to haul ass tomorrow. I stopped at around three though to get ready for work.

I worked from 4 until 11 today; the first time I've ever closed the shop. It was a frickin' long shift; good thing I was able to walk to Subway on my dinner break. I made up this awesome new drink today where I blended a peanut butter stack ( a snack thing) into a Mocha Frappuccino. It tasted superb, and alsmot like a Reese's. I wouldn't advise drinking too much of one though, I guess it was real rich or something because I felt sick for about half an hour.

I'm proud to say I can now do whipped cream like a professional amateur, as opposed to an idiot. However, I've found a new thing to hate. Well, it's a love/hate relationship. There are these day-glo green gloves we keep in back for washing dishes and stuff, and I can't decide whether I love them or hate them. They're super cool looking and it's awesome to wear them, but they are practically impossible to get on and off. I think if I could just have them appear on me it'd be perfect. Sorta like how the Power Rangers had "Morphin' Time", I could have "Washin' Time."

Me and Kelly (Kelley?), my shift supervisor, talked a lot tonight as it was just her, Scott and I closing the place, and she's pretty cool. We talked about books and school a lot, and she recognised my Harry Potter July 16, 2005 bracelet without me having to say a word.

Sunday 8/14/05:

I watched bad TV from about 11:30 to 1:45 as the friend who's house I'm staying at was on the computer in the guest room, which is where I happen to be sleeping. Now, I'm not upset about sleep, as obviously I am still awake, but I was kinda upset he was on the computer so long. I'm an addict, oh well.

Anyways, I watched thing slike "Just Shoot Me", "Married... With Children", and Local Programming. Augghhh. I wanted to die.

-Neil

Current Music: I can't think of a single song worthy of Current Music right now... Suggestions?

Suicide Frappuccinos and Melting Pots

lightningphyre — 2005-08-16T01:08:32-05:00

I was too lazy to post last night, but I had some stuff to say, so I'm saying it tonight. Deal with it.

Sunday, 8/14:

I had to get my own dinner tonight because my parents were outta town, so I ended up going to Carls Jr. I went to the less... reputable of the two nearby because it's the closest one and it's food still tastes the same. I love the food at Carls Jr., but this actual establishment is just plain dirty. The people that work there are wierd too.

Anyways, I got my usual: a Western Bacon Cheeseburger with Criss-Cut Fries, a small soda, and an Oreo Cheese Cake... Mmm, delicious.

Afterwards I went basically next door to the Starbucks I work at and Amanda, Laura, Kelly (Kelley?) and Beth were working. I bought a Zen Iced Tea Lemonade with my spiffy discount and sat down. Amanda kept screwing drinks up though and giving them to me to drink. She also made me a couple drinks, with special surprizes inside them (think gross stuff). By the end of the night I had eight drinks on the table in front of me. We ended up pouring them all into one glass and blending them together, creating the Suicide Frappuccino! It didn't taste to bad but I would definitely not drink more than two sips of it.

Monday, 4/15:

Nothing at all happened today, until dinner time. Since it was my mom's birthday yesterday, but they were outta town, we went out to dinner. Happily, we went to the Melting Pot. Now, I'm not sure how widespread the Melting Pot is, so I will explain it. It's this awesome fondue restaurant that basicaly makes great tasting food. AKA: the second best restaurant ever.

We got some wonderful food, such as the Swiss Cheese Fondue appetizer, the Lobster Classic and some meat dish I forget the name of cooked Coq au Vin style, and a Amaretto Chocolate fondue for dessert. Talk about wonderfulness in my mouth.

It was only my first time eating there but it is now definitely in the list of top two restaurants. Benihanas will always be number one though.

I work tomorrow, which is nice because I actually enjoy working. Plus I only work seven hours this week, which kinda sucks because I want/need money.

-Neil

Current Music: "Pepper" - Butthole Surfers

Mary Shelley, I Stole Your Bible

lightningphyre — 2005-08-17T02:08:25-05:00

I got hit by a car today.

Not really, but I almost wish I did just so I could blog about it. I didn't get hit by a car, but one of my good friends did think I was a rapist because of how I drove my car.

I was driving home from Longs Drugs today when I see my friend walking by the side of the (residential) street. I slow down as I pass her, but she doesn't seem to recognise me. After about thirty feet I decide I'm going to go back to say "Hi," so I reverse the car into a driveway and pull towards her. By this time she had turned into a court because her friend's house was there, and I thought to myself, "She probably thinks I'm a rapist." Eventually she recognises me and the first thing out of her mouth is "I thought you were a molester." Ahh, good times.

Originally I was only scheduled to work from 4:00 to 7:00 today, but one of the girls who was supposed to close had to call in and say she couldn't come because her brother was in the hospital. I think he was walking through a field that they had recently sprayed for mosquitoes and the pesticide got into a cut on his foot and caused an allergic reaction. Anyways, I got a call from my boss asking if I'd like to work from 4:00 to 10:00 instead of from 4:00 to 7:00. I jumped at the chance.

Work was pretty fun today, Amanda, Meigan, Jenna and I all were there, but Jenna didn't close. I'm getting better at everything, but the only people who dropped in that I recognised were my parents. Jeez, what is with my friends.

The title of this blog, "Mary Shelley, I Stole Your Bible", is just something really cool that came to me today in the shower. Mary Shelley of course being the author of Frankenstein. I don't actually mean her Bible as in the Christian Bible, but I mean it more as her philosophies expressed within Frankenstein. Anyways, I thought it sounded cool and this way I won't forget it.

-Neil

Current Music: "Time is Industry" - Lola Ray

no subject

lightningphyre — 2005-08-17T05:08:32-05:00

I was in Del Taco, and the embodiment of sex walked in...

The Letter Opener of Death

lightningphyre — 2005-08-17T11:08:50-05:00

Let me start out by saying, no, yelling, that I HATE MY SISTER. And my mom for that matter.

Today my sister was scheduled to get her hair cut/styled/whatever, and so my mom informed me that I would have to drive her to the salon since she would be busy at work. Ok, no biggie. Well, after about ten minutes of backtalk from my sister I finally herd her into my car (the backseat AHAHA) and we were on our merry way to the hair salon.

We pull up, and I make sure she gets inside the place since she complained to my mom that I didn't last time, and when I see she is safely within the premises, I begin pulling out of the parking space. She comes running out of the salon like the devil's at her heels, and I roll down the window to yell, "What?"

She quickly informs me that she forgot the hair style magazine at home, and that I "have to go get it". Let me now inform you, it takes me fifteen-twenty minutes to get from the house to the salon. That's another twenty back tot he house and twenty back to the salon again. I tell her I'll bring it back if I can find it.

When I get home, it's in too obvious a location to justify my saying I coudln't find it, so I grit my teeth and start heading back to the salon. As I'm, driving back, I wonder if I am also supposed to pick my sister up to take her home. I call my mom and leave a message on both her cell and work phone.

I get to the salon, and although it's been a good half hour since the time she was supposed to show up, she has not begun to get her hair cut yet. She doesn't thank me for the magazine, and I leave.

I get in the car, fearing I'm going to have to return to pick her up once again, and leave my mom another coupla messages. I get home, burn a CD, and since my mom hadn't called me back, I get in my car to return. Mind you, by this time I had spent 60 minutes in the car and driven about 30 miles. I had another 30 ahead of me.

I ge to the salon, only to find out my mom had picked her up. My mom had picker her up and hadn't called me. My mom had picked her up and hadn't called me and I had done all that driving. As I'm driving home for the third time, I get a call from my mom, asking where I am. I politely answer all her questions while chewing her out in my head. She tells me she leaving five bucks for my sister for me to get lunch with. Gee, thanks mom. I wasted more than five bucks worth of gas today.

At lunch though, I was standing waiting for my to-go order at Del Taco, and sex manifest walked in.

I had a good day at work today, even though I wasn't supposed to be there. i'm really starting to be competent/feel confident.

I got another college letter thing in the mail today, and so I tried to open it with a letter opener. I learned that I'm not very good with letter openers. Maybe I've just never been trained properly. Does it require training?

Anyways, I almost killed myself with the letter opener. A tiki letter opener nontheless. Can you imagine how embarassing that would be? Maybe I can sick it on my sister.

-Neil

Current Music: "The Hand That Feeds" - Nine Inch Nails

Highside! Highside!

lightningphyre — 2005-08-19T12:08:57-05:00

5:44 AM: My dad's walking into my room, turning the light on, and informing me it's time to get up. He tells me to shwoer fast because he wants to leve by 6:20. "What is going on?" I'm thinking to myself. And then I remember, my dad I were going white water rafting.

About two weeks ago my dad became set on taking me up to Truckee to go white water rafting after he read about two rafting companies in the Sacramento Bee. I could see it was one of those things we would be doing, so i just said, "Fine." Today was finally the day, and I was not looking forward to it.

As we got nearer the rafting place, I could see the river. I could also see the steam coming off the river. Now, it is not that uncommon to see steam coming off a heated pool on a cold morning. Heated pools are normally around 75-80 degrees. It is very unusual to see steam coming off an unheated body of water in the mountains. I checked the thermometer display thingy in the car and sure enough, the outside temperature was 45 degrees. I was going to be getting into that water, splashed by that water, and possibly submerged in that water. Happy I was not.

We finally get going and it's kinda boring, there was four rafts all with five people including the guides in our group, and as the day gets warmer and conversations becomes easier with the strangers, the day gets bearable. (Suggested Tag: white trash water) We saw some pretty cool ducks, some interesting car wrecks including a car they shot over a cliff in the making of the "Godfather II", a plane wing, and some nice scenery. The rapids were okay, but it wasn't that great until the end.

The end was class three rapids, and those were pretty fun. A twelve year old girl almost fell out in our boat but her very talkative, overly protective mother practically shot across the boat to save her. All in all, I'd say the day was pretty good, and I'd do it again. I did however find out halfway through the trip that even the guide rarely ever sees steam coming off the river.

Later in the day I went and visited my dear old friend of three months at her workplace which is Coldstone. ok, so I use her for the free ice cream, but I brought her her month-late belated birthday present, a paperback Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. When I found out she hadn't read any of the Harry Potter books, I knew I had to show her the way.

We had a pretty good talk about her trip to Hawaii and just a bunch of things, but then there was a rush so I went on my merry way to Starbucks. I had made one of the girls at work a copy of NIN's "With Teeth" album because she loves Nine Inch Nails but didn't have the CD, so I went to drop that off. I also, with my nifty 30% discount, bought a Passion Tea Lemonade, but sweetened with Raspberry instead of the normal syrup. I always forget if it's Valencia or Classic...

As I was driving round a bend in my neighborhood on my way home, I came to a spot where for the past two nights a black cat had made as if to cross in front of my car, and then turned around to walk the other way. Tonight the cat was there again, in the exact same spot, and it did the exact same thing. It's starting to scare me.

-Neil

Current Music: "Blue Orchid" - White Stripes tied with "One Week" - Bare Naked Ladies

P.S. I almost titled this entry "The Black Cat Boogie"

P.P.S. I got the strangest voice mail today from a restricted number. Here's a transcript:

"Hi, it's Joanna (name was mumbled, I think it was Joanna), and I'm really cute. And I was just wondering if this is Satan's number cuz I saw it in a phone book and it said Neil, but I didn't really believe it so, (some guy chuckles in the background) just call me back when you get this. It's me, bye."

My cell phone number ends in 666, most likely prompting this phone call, and I think it was from a friend of mine named Katie.

The Starbucks Experience

lightningphyre — 2005-08-20T07:08:30-05:00

Eeesh. Today i had to wake up at 7:15 because I had a Starbucks training class thing called the Starbucks Experience at 9:00. After doing my whole morning routine, I got out the door at around 8:10 (the time my mom said I should leave by) and drove off. Now, the training class was going to be held at some training center in Sacramento. I had Mapquest directions and felt I would make it there easily. Ha.

I completely underestimated the roads in Sacramento, they are crazy. At around 8:50 I frantically called my dad who was still at home and ordered him to get a map online sho he could guide me over the phone. I finally get to the class a afew minutes late, but on time enough to keep me from being barred from entrance.

The class was pretty boring (it lasted until 1:00), but the othe rpeople in it and the instructor were nice. At 1:00 I set out for home and after only a few minutes of being lost I found my way onto the freeway. However, about two minutes before reaching the offramp that I take to get home, I se that my "Service Engine Soon" lamp is blinking and I'm going slower, even though I'm pressing harder on the gas pedal.

I pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the car. I tried to turn it back on but although the power worked, the ignition wasn't working. After about an hour (in the heat) my dad and a tow truck finally show up and my car gets towed away while I go home with my dad. My dad thinks maybe I was just out of gas, which could be possible as my fuel gauge doesn't work. I said that I still had about 80 miles until when I normally fill it up, but he thinks I might not have filled it up completely last time or that maybe someone siphoned gas from my tank. Either way, we'll know soon enough as the tow truck place is also a car garage.

Tonight I'm hanging out with swim team friends at Matt's house. Well, not actually at Matt's house, but that's where we'll eventually end up. I have no idea what we're gonna do, but when I got the call from Matt he said to "show up in a toga and bring a change of clothes." Sounds like it'll be a blast.

I got a new voicemail today, sort of a sequel to the one I posted yesterday. Here's the transcript:

"Hi, Neil, this is Joanna Y. (I think that was the name, it was mumbled), umm, I called earlier. But, umm, I was just wondering if I could sell my soul to you because, umm, your number is Satan's number and so I'm pretty sure you're the devil and so I wanted to sell my soul to you so just give me a call back when you want my soul. Ok, bye."

-Neil

Current Music: "Europop" - Eifel 65

EDIT 8/20 8:04: It turns out that the only "problem" with my car was that it was out of gas. I think someone must have siphoned gas from my tank because I should have at least been able to get another 75 miles outta what I put in the tank...

Togas in the Parking Lot

lightningphyre — 2005-08-21T02:08:03-05:00

Oh. My god. Last night was superbly amazing (Suggested Tag: god is amazing). As you may remember, I went to Matt's house having no idea what we were going to be doing and the only instruction being to bring a toga.

I show up at Matt's garage and everyone's in a toga and the game Twister is laying out. Just seeing everyone in their different togas made me laugh. Matt was in leopard print and Bonnie was in some tropical flower thing. Erkyka was of course wearing practically a pillow case and Emily's toga only covered her half the time. I was the only one to tie it in the authentic way, but hey, that's what Latin Club will do to you.

Anyways, we never played Twister but we played some drinking game. We used water instead though, with the thought that the first person to pee would lose. It was going pretty slow so we started playing Big Booty instead. However, instead of using cups, we poured all the water into one big bowl, set it on the Twister mat, and everytime someone had to drink, they had to shove their face in the bowl like a true savage.

Eventually we went to Denny's. In our togas. Everyone stared at us which was awesome but the bitchy waitress sat us in the very back corner. We had the worst service ever, we didn't even get our waters until we had been sitting down for half an hour. That could be because for about ten minutes we were all under Amy's giant sized toga having a "Confession Blanket", but still, our waitress was slow. When we finally got up to pay we decided not to tip at all. Which was considerably less than the penny I had decided I was going to tip them.

David had to go home so we dropped him off and headed over to WinCo (Suggested Tag: titty twister). WinCo is this huge grocery store/shopping center that's open 24 hours a day with a humongous parking lot. It's rumored that the shopping carts arew set up in such a way that if you tried to take them out of the parking lot they would magnetically lock down. Well, we tested it out and it's not true.

Since it was around 1:00 in the morning the parking lot was basically vacant. After just pushing each other around in carts for a while we had the epiphany. Make a chain of carts attached to the car using the cloth from the togas! We rode around in a single file chain and two double chains for about an hour and a half I'm guessing. By the time we were done the people who had been riding in the carts were kinda high off the gas fumes, which made it even funnier.

Done with cart-surfing, we decided to head over to Casa High to break into their pool. When we got their, however, we could hear other people alreday in the school, so we decided to leave. Planning on going to Adalberto's so Matt could summon a poo to leave on a girl's doorstep, we ended up just getting Adalberto's and going to sleep.

All in all it was a wonderful night. And the pictures can be found at http://photobucket.com/albums/a96/lightningphyre2/The%20Toga%20Party/.

-Neil

Current Music: "The Road Leads Where Its Led" - Secret Machines

The Drive-Thru

lightningphyre — 2005-08-23T01:08:21-05:00

This morning I had to actually get up early, around 7:00-ish. Which sucked, because most of my friends started school today whereas I don't start until Thursday and I wanted to revel in it. But anyways, I had to get up early so that my dad could take me to the garage that my car was at.

So, we get to the area where the garage is, and it's... Well. It's not the wrong side of the tracks but it's definitely a different side of the tracks. So, since the place doesn't open until 9:00 we went to McDonald's for breakfast. As we're sitting down however, my dad explains to me that he's leaving to go to work and that I'm to walk back to the garage to get my car. I stared in shock as he left me. So there I am, sitting in McDonald's for about half an hour silently freaked out. The strangest people and some pretty scary people came in, and I wasn't very happy (Suggested Tag: garage band).

When it finally comes time to walk to the garage, I hightail it, and luckily I make it there safe and sound without being kidnapped or anything. Once I'm in my car, I feel much better and the sounds of Eifel 65 and Hoobastank helped me to relax on my way home.

My mom wanted me to pick my sister up from school today, and since it was her first day, she got out at noon. On my way to her school, which happens to be a Catholic school, I purposefully changed the CD I was playing in my car to Marilyn Manson's Greatest Of Album. I smiled when I got a wierd look from the teacher who opened the car door for my sister.

When I showed up for work today, Erica, the manager on duty, instructed me to put on a headset for the drive-thru. I replied with, "I've never done it before," and she told me that I wouldn't be taking orders, I'd just be listening in and making the drinks while another partner rung everyone up. Okay, no big deal.

It went pretty well for about an hour and a half, and then the girl I was working the drive-thru with started teaching me how to ring people up. That was going a little rockier, but she was always there to help.

Soon I find out, however, that I'm going to be the sole worker on drive-thru because she was going to take her half hour lunch break. Uh-oh. Not only does that mean that I would have to ring everybody up, an ordeal in its own right, I would also have to make all the drinks.

So, it turns out that everyone waited until she went on her break to drive up to the little ordering microphone thing. I got so swamped and was starting to freak out and eventually I just cried out for help. I managed to survive until she came back, but only barely. I felt terrible, partly because I had screwed up at least three people's drinks (one came into the store to complain), partly because I made everyone wait so long, and partly because everyone gave me that look that people get when they're deprived of their caffeine. I felt like I was going to fall apart, but the girl I was working with told me how they put her on drive-thru her third day and how she cried during her break. That made me feel better.

Anyways, school orientation and picture day is tomorrow, so I gotta get my beauty rest.

-Neil

Current Music: "Remember Me" - Hoobastank

Junior Orientation

lightningphyre — 2005-08-24T01:08:08-05:00

I continue to wake up at ungodly hours in the morning. Today it was nine o' clock. Why, you may ask? Well, in order to get ready for Junior Orientation at school of course. Every year the classes all come to school before it actually gets back in session so that they can be bored out of their minds for two hours hearing what they already know.

Anyways, I got to school about 20 minutes early, so I think to myself, "Why don't I get a Jamba Juice?" As soon as I was finished with that thought I practically punched myself in the face and said out loud, "That is not a good idea." Last time I decided to get Jamba before school I ended up paying around $415 dollars for it.

Although orientation was packed with the usual hour and a half of boring speeches from administartion and student council members, it was good to get to see everyone again. Many people I hadn't seen all summer, and some people I've never actually talked to before actually acted as though we were friends. Which was srange, but good; I'm always looking to expand the friend base.

I was supposed to go to lunch with my mom afterwards since she works at the school, but she had to go to a metting so she just gave me money to get my own lunch. I started driving towards Jack's Grill in Loehman's Plaza to have a lonely lunch by myself, when I rpactically get run over by some friends from school. When we both pull into and park in the Loehman's parking lot, I find out they're going to Chipotle, so I end up going there. There were even more people there that I knew, so it was pretty fun. Better than lunch by myself, for sure.

So then I got home at around 2:00, watched television until 4:00 and have been reading the Scarlet Letter ever since, due to the fact that I have a large amount of work due on it on Friday and had not cracked the book open until today. I'm like three fourths of the way done and it's pretty good so far.

-Neil

Current Music: "The Beautiful People" - Marilyn Manson

Adultery annd Orthodontia

lightningphyre — 2005-08-24T11:08:56-05:00

My head is spinning thinking about The Scarlet Letter. Last night I actually set my alarm to wake me up at 9:00 so I could finish as much of my summer reading as possible today. Well, I woke up at nine, but I ended up not getting out of bed until 11:00. At least I tried.

Anyways, I ended up finishing the book, and I've decided, it's pretty good. Kelly from my work said she didn't like it, and so I went into it not expecting a good outcome, but I was pleased. It was definitely odd, but I enjoyed it. I finished reading about 1:00, so then I had to shower so I could go to my orthodontist appointment.

Apparently, I was scheduled to come in yesterday, but since my mom forgot to tell me I had an appointment, they rescheduled me for today. As I was walking out the door, I remembered not to wear flip flops and so instead changed into a pair of normal shoes. Wearing normal shoes helps me to deal with the pain because I'm able to scrunch my toes up in them or something.

Today was pretty simple, only a new chain and a new rubebr band configuration. I'm going to religously wear my rubbers (AHAHAHA) this time as last time I didn't wear them at all. After the appointment, I went to Jamba Juice, and it only cost me $4.25, just like it's supposed to.

So I got home and looked at what work I was supposed to do regarding The Scarlet Letter. I had to make a graphic organizer of my choosingrelating the plot of the book, I had to answer a huge AP Test like amount of questions on the text, and I had to write three essays. I did the graphic organizer first, and it turned out pretty suave. I haven't done the multiple choice questions yet as I don't have the Scantron that was supposedly attached. I've done two of the three essays, and can't decide whether to do the thir done tonight.

The work is all due on Friday, and I work from 4-10 tomorrow night, so I'm trying to get as much done as possible tonight. I think I'll just circle the answers to the multiple chocie questions, and do the essay tomorrow night. That'll gve me a chance to ask Andrew for some ideas for the essay, as it is the only one I have no clue what to write about on.

The first day of school is tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about going to school, I'm just not pumped about doing school work. I bet that's how it is for most people. I mean, I like my friends, I just don't like homework.

-Neil

Current Music: "Golden Touch" - Razorlight

Back to School

lightningphyre — 2005-08-26T02:08:01-05:00

Ahhh... The First-Day-of-School blog. Well, I guess I'll just jump into it by giving you a blow by blow account. Here goes...

6:00AM: My alarm goes off and, I promptly press the Snooze button. The Snooze button lasts for six minutes, and I always calculate that into setting my alarm. I think it helps me wake up better if I lay there half-asleep for those six minutes as opposed to trying to jump out of bed the second I wake up.

I showered, got dressed, and ate breakfast. I was way ahead of schedule, so after fixing my alarm clock to go off later tomorrow, I tried to find things to do with myself. I ended up brushing my teeth an extra two times and doing my hair. When it was finally time to go, I hopped in my mom's awesome BMW Z3 and set off.

It was great seing a bunch of people that I hadn't seen in a while, and it felt good to be back at school. First class of the day was Calculus. This class is mostly seniors and two juniors, me being on the junior end of it. It seems like a fun class, but I don't think it'll be as good as last years. I actually looked forward to showing up to last year's math class.

Second class on the schedule was Art of Film. Today was pretty boring, but it seems like it'll pick up the pace pretty soon. I have like two good friends in the class, and the rest of the people are mainly people that I know who they are, but I don't know them, so that'll be interesting.

Break was up next, and I didn't even try to buy a pizza as I normally do during break. I knew, of course, that the line would be insane, mostly populated by freshman. Last year's freshmen seemed pretty cool, but these one's are pathetic. This morning, I saw some kid's mom help him carry all his books to his locker. I was feeling sorry for him at the same time that I was laughing at him. I'm so cold.

Third class was English 3 AP. I was so stoked about this class. Although the actual classmates were a dud, as there are like 3 other cool people in the class, I was so happy to have a teacher besides Mr. Shakeley. I just could not stand the thought of ever seeing him again in my life. Mr. Carrigan seems pretty cool, and although today was just the basic get -to-know-everyone stuff, I had fun.

My fourth destination was Computer Applications. I originally signed up for this class for a couple of reasons. First off, I had an empty slot that needed to be filled by a one-semester elective. Secondly, I couldn't take Art History because that's only open to freshman. Secondly, I didn't want to take a study hall, as that looks bad to colleges. So what am I left with? Computer Apps.

I can already tell it's going to be so boring/death. There are like three other cool kids in the class, and if we sit alphabetically, which I bet we will, I won't be anywhere near them. Also, I'll be right next to, in my opinion, the most annoying kid at school. And he'll be even louder as he's into computers. Uggh.

Lunch was next on the schedule, and it was a mixture of highs and lows. High: Lunch. Low: Lunch line was farther than ever. The line is always long the first few days of school, but it's like every freshman decided to buy lunch. It was insane. Plus, there were freshmen sitting on the senior quad. I'm not a senior, but even I was offended. Technically, there's no rule saying only seniors can sit there, but it's basically unspoken. Oh well, they'll loon searn enough.

I also saw a lot of people during lunch that I hadn't seen earlier in the day, and I was happy just to get back in touch with everyone.

Fifth period: Latin 3 H. Hmm. Latin. What can I say? It was good to see everyone again. As we were heading towards the classroom, I told Keller he should get his book, as he thought he wouldn't need it. Now, I admit, none of my other teachers had assigned anything except signatures on papers, but I guaranteed Keller we would have work in Latin.

Fifteen minutes into the 50 minutes lesson we had a ten page handout in front of us. I told him so.

Last class of the day was Chemistry Honors. I officially have a hateful attitude towards this class. At Jesuit, there are a few classrooms that are the kind with different levels, with a row of seats on each step. My Chem class is in one of these classrooms. It has always been my dream to have one of these classrooms, but as my teacher reads off the seating chart, I find out I am in the front row. Not only is the front row bad enough, it's on the ground floor. I am in the classroom of my dreams and I have to sit on the ground floor. I was crushed.

Not only that, but the only cool person who sits near me is Ryan, and he sits diagonally behind me, so it's not exactly as though I can turn around and talk to him during class. He bought my Pre-Cal book from last year, though, which is pretty cool. Thirty bucks in my pocket.

After school, I went to work, and I'm getting much better at everything. I love working at Starbuck's so much, I actually look forward to it.

-Neil

Current Music: "Save Yourself" - Stabbing Westward

Traffic School

lightningphyre — 2005-08-30T08:08:29-05:00

Well, I just finished my Online Traffic School course. For those of you who don't know, earlier this summer I was caught speeding. Doing 70 in a 40 mph. zone trying to get to school on time, I was pulled over.

Anyways, considering I was (still am) in my probationary first-six months period, i could have had my license taken away until I was 18. Luckily (I think), the judge just gave me a $392 fine and the option to take Traffic School. I of course, jumped at the chance.

My certificate of completion is due back to the court on September 9th, so I figured I should probably get it done so that it would get mailed to me in time. Anyways, I just completed the course in around half an hour. Not bad, I'd say. I didn't read any of the stuff I was supposed to, which probably explains why it took me two tries on the final exam to pass. I ended up with a 20 correct out of 25 possible, the minimum requirement.

All that aside, I completed the course succesfully, and Now I'm just waiting to recieve my certificate. because it's so close ot the deadline, I upgraded my delivery thing to Second Day, which I assume means in about two days. It cost me an extra $35, so it better show up soon.

In order to complete the course, I had to fill out a survey regarding the site. It was mandatory to answer all the questions, so I gave them 10's for everything, including tech support and phone supprt, neither of which I used.

Also, there were two questions that I had to type answers to. Here they are:

What can we do to improve our course (you can write as much as you want. You are not limited to one line) Nothing can be done, it's great!

Please provide any additional comments or suggestions you may have about our course(you can write as much as you want. You are not limited to one line) It's wonderful!

-Neil

Current Music: "Everything is Everything" - Phoenix

What I learned In School Today

lightningphyre — 2005-09-01T01:09:28-05:00

Okay, so I'm not going to tell you everything I learned, that would be retarded. I wanted to go over a few interesting points that came up in my Calculus class, though. Don't worry, no mathematical thinking is needed on your part.

Anyways, we started off the class with this concentration thing that we've been doing every day. It's almost like yoga, but with your mind only. I'm sure there's a name for it, but I don't know what it is. Anyways, by visualising a golden cord extending from our spine to the center of the earth, we are able to ground, or focus, ourselves. We expel all distracting thoughts and absorb energising... energy from the earth.

It's pretty fun actually, and mucho relaxing. I even did it in one of my other classes when we had like half an hour to sit there and do nothing. Supposedly after we're comfortable with this we go on to other exercises. My math teacher's cool like that.

Then, however, we started taking notes. We were doing an example, and she wrote the answer on the board for us. Everyone copied it down, and it wasn't until a few minutes later that someone realized it was wrong. Thinking about that, I realized how blindly we trust teachers. They could tell us anything, and we'd believe it.

Well, of course, not anything. They'd have a hard time convincing their class the sky was orange, but they still have immense power. The whole idea of trusting them because their teachers is something we should be able to do, but we as students need to use our own brains as well.

Also in Calculus, we were doing a problem where we had to find the speed of a falling boulder at an exact moment. It interested us (or at least me) when the teacher pointed out that it doesn't seem like you should be able to calculate speed at an exact moment. Assuming there can be no motion at an exact point of time, there could be no speed. Just sorta paradoxical.

After school I went to Starbuck's, not to work, but just to get a drink. I had brought a Red Bull with me because I wanted to try a Green Tea Lemonade with Red Bull instead of lemonade. It tasted okay, but nothing special. Definitely not worth the $2.15 the Red Bull cost. When I was there, I also got my markouts.

At Starbuck's every week we are allowed to take home one free product from a list of products. These are called "Markouts". These products include all the bagged coffee beans, as well as some other things. Anyways, this week was Double Markout Week, meaning we got to take home double the stuff. Using my markout powers for the first time ever, I took home a bag of Sumatra and a bag of Kenya. I also bought a traveller's mug to take the coffee to school in. I'm most definitely on the fast track to a caffeine addiction.

I missed the Coffee Seminar, which I actually really wanted to go to, tonight because I had to take my stupid little sister to get her soccer pictures taken. Jeez.

-Neil

Current Music: "Der Kommissar" - After the Fire

Emo Kids in Heat

lightningphyre — 2005-09-07T02:09:25-05:00

I have to say it: I feel sorry for emo kids.

The other day, I wore a pair of jeans to school as all of my shorts were dirty and they were a new pair of pants anyways. Well, I live in Sacramento (or round abouts) and it is currently summer here. Summer in Sac-town sucks. As in very hot weather. As in 90s-100s. I hate the heat. However, I especially hate the heat when wearing pants; they make it even hotter.

Which brings me to my point, I feel sorry for emo kids. It's basically an unwrittten rule, or so I've observed, that emo kids must always wear pants. I don't klnow why, but it's true. And, to make matters worse, they are almost always ratehr tight pants. It must be terrible having to go through the whole sumemr wearing pants, let alone tight pants. Think of how hot they must get!

Also, they often times have long, dark hair, and they wear dark colors. It's like they're asking for heat stroke. I guess they might become accustomed to the heat after a while, but what about the newbie emo kids? They probably get really sick of the heat in the beginning. Either way, I feel sorry for those emo kids.

On an unrelated note, and a note that actually has to do with my day, I worked drive-thru tonight. By myself. And I didn't have a breakdown. Which made me very proud. I was also very proud when some lady who pulled into the drive-thru at about twenty minutes to closing left me a $2+ tip.

But on the topic of tips: (suggested tag: no pants day) Some old lady stole our tips tonight. Now, it is not too uncommon to have someone steal our drive-thru tips, as they sit outside the window. We normally take these tips inside periodically. Yet it is very rare for someone to steal the tips at the front counter. But some old lady (50ish) did.

It was a little suspicious when she came in only to order water, but whatever, we handed it to her as she set her purse on the counter and went on our business. Jenna says she heard a clinking, but thought she was adjusting something in her purse or the tip jar got bumped. It was only until around an hour later that we notcied the WHOLE JAR was missing! She took the whole jar.

The most regrettable thing was that there were actually dollar bills in there.

-Neil

Current Music: "Spiderwebs" - No Doubt

A Song From the Heart

lightningphyre — 2005-09-07T07:09:52-05:00

I've found a song that like perfectly describes my life. There's always songs that people think to themselves, "Oh, I can relate to that." But with this song, it's almost as if I wrote it.

I'm not gonna tell you which song it is though; it's that personal.

-Neil

Current Music: It's a Secret

The Rebirth of Blue Bunny

lightningphyre — 2005-09-08T01:09:27-05:00

Today was record breaking. Today, they stocked the ice cream machine.

At school, we have one of those nifty ice cream vending machines (totally cutting edge) and it's my favorite machine. Or it was, until about half way through sophomore year last year when someone decided to rip apart the machine in exchange for small amount of money inside.

Anyways, a large piece of plywood was put between the front of the machine and the large iron cage it stands inside, and it seemed to be forgotten for the rest of the year. I was distrught, as I was unable to buy my favorite ice cream, the Chocolate Eclair bar.

Even throught all of summer school the machien remained broken, and I neve thought it would be fixed again. However, when this school year started, my friends and I noticed that the machine had been fixed, but it was empty and the plywood was still in place.

So, imagine my astonishment when today at lunch I saw the Blue Bunny delivery truck and the Blue Bunny man stocking the ice cream machine! I screamed, "BLUE BUNNY!" My friends and I all got excited, and I promptly hurried over so that I could be the first person to buy an ice cream from the newly reborn machine.

After about ten minutes of watching hte guy stock the machine, he asks me and my friend if we wanted to buy something. I asked him if the Chocolate Eclair bars were still $1.25 and he said we could both just have one because they were soft from having sat in the truck. Lucky day!

Not onyl did I get the first ice cream bar of the year, it was free! I was so ecstatic. I even saved the stick as a souvenir.

-Neil

Current Music: "Butterflies & Hurricanes" - Muse

Fluid Suffocation

lightningphyre — 2005-09-09T09:09:07-05:00

I normally don't post poetry, but I just really needed to post this one right now... It's super pertinent.

This is a poem I wrote for my "Poetic Vision" (AKA Death) project which was due at the end of last school year.

Fluid Suffocation.

My skin melts from my bones
Bones turned pliable rubber
Energy spent so there's none left
Hot but too tired to kick off the covers

Physical effects
Due to your mental impact
You melt me
You strangle my aspects

When not being strangled
I hold my breath
Trying to remember how it feels when
You melt me

-Neil

Current Music: The weird freaky music that was composed just for the movie "Donnie Darko"

Whistle While You Work

lightningphyre — 2005-09-11T11:09:27-05:00

Oh wait, I don't know how to whistle!

Today I was liekt he main Drive-Thru guy, so that was pretty bad. Drive-Thru makes me wantt o put my head in a Frappuccino blender. But I discovered how to make it bearable. I now dance whenever taking orders on Drive-Thru. I would never dance at a front register, because the customer would run away, but people can't see me when they're not even inside the store. So I dance while on Drive-Thru. It's pretty fun.

I had so many drinks today, I think I had about six drinks, all Venti (LARGE), in about a 5 hour time period. I'm wired. Probably why I danced.

After work, I didn't want to go hoemt o all my homework, so I just sat aroudn drinking caffeine while thanging out with Amanda, because she lives at Starbuck's. She was playing with her camera phone, and it was a riot. I ended up staying for about an hour and a half after I got off work.

I'm going to the Green Day concert on Sept. 30th, which'll be hella awesome.

We discussed how only us Californians say "hella" at work.

-Neil

Current Music: "Basket Case"- Green Day

I Wear My Sunglasses at Night... And Whenever

lightningphyre — 2005-09-12T11:09:35-05:00

Today, on Drive-Thru, as I was handing drinks to some lady, she told me about how she was hooked on Starbuck's and it was like we, "Put something in [our] drinks to addict people." I wanted to scream, "OH MY FUCKING GOD! ARE YOU JOKING ME?!", but I settled for, "Yea, it's probably all the caffeine."

G-O-D, Jeez, and Virg.

Ok, so I was pretty sure when I ordered my old fogey sunglasses on Ebay the other day they would be pretty sweet:

However, I had no idea they would be this sweet until they arrived in the mail today:

-Neil

Current Music: "Sunglasses at Night" - Corey Hart

P.S. (9:29PM 9/12): In addition to all the other drinsk I had at work tonight, I had three Venti Unsweetened Green Tea Lemonades. I gotta shove 'em in before they're gone. Too bad the Lemonade Iced Teas are seasonal.

I Can See Clearly Now

lightningphyre — 2005-09-15T10:09:45-05:00

So, today I had an appointment at the optometrist. But I'll work up to that.

I hate how my dad does not want to learn no matter how hard anyone tries to teach him. I've told him numerous times that he needs to clean out the grinder he uses to grind the coffee beans every morning, but he doesn't think he needs to. However, today proves it. Yesterday he brewed Gazebo Blend, which definitely has a cirtusy, tart taste. And today he brewed Anniversary Blend, which normally has a spicy, barely earthy taste.

Today, drinking what should have been Anniversary Blend, I tasted something odd; it was citrus. He brewed Anniversary grounds and Gazebo grounds together. Worst blend ever. And all because he doesn't clean the grinder.

After school, I hit up Starbuck's, then proceeded to the optometrist. It was time for a check-up or whatever, but I was also interested in getting contacts. So, to make a long story short, they did the normal tests, taught me how to put contacts in and take them out, and gave me a trial pair and an appointment for next Thursday.

I have the contacts in right now, and it's awesome, because I can wear sunglasses without having to sacrifice perfect vision, and I really don't feel them. Anyways, I went back to Starbuck's after the appointment and hung out.

Meigan and I set our bake-off date for Sunday. We both claim that we can make the best brownies (mine being my school-wide-famous S'mores Brownies) and so we're competing. We're both gonna bring in our batches to the store on Sunday and have the other partners be judges. I'm gonna win for sure.

Four emo kids came into the store while I was there because there is a show at the Boardwalk tonight. I quickly noticed that emo kids really like Chai. I think three of the four ordered Chai drinks. It may just be musicians however, as my good friend/guitar prodigy Jon likes Chai, but is definitely not emo.

About ten minutes later, when Kelly came back from cleaning up the outside of the store, I noticed she had taken my old fogey sunglasses with her. When she came in, she said the emo kids had asked, "Where'd you get those?" I was glad to see that other people like my sunglasses. I'm excited about the world sharing the same vision as I when it comes to sunglasses, but I would not be happy if the only people to start wearing sunglasses were emo kids. Especially the sweaty ones because they insist on wearing tight pants on hot days.

-Neil

Current Music: "Us" - Regina Spektor

Iron Chef Starbucks: Brownie Battle

lightningphyre — 2005-09-18T11:09:59-05:00

Today I got up at 10:00 AM so that I could bake brownies. I had baked four batches last night, but, you know, since I'm retarded, I had to bake two more batches.

Anyways, they are my famous, delectable, S'Mores Brownies, and you may be wondering why I made so many. Well, the Latin Club at school is having a bake sale tomorrow. Not only have my brownies been gaining in renown at school due to past bake sales, but this year I'm officially the Arbiter Coquorum (Master of Chefs) and so I have to set a good example for the rest of the club. So I was gonna bake four batches for the bake sale, as each time I bake more and more because they sell out quicker and quicker.

But at work a week or so ago, I was talking about them, and I got challenged to a brownie bake off by a co-worker. We set the time for today at 6:00 PM, and so I woke up to bake two more batches to take to work.

We ended up convincing another partner at Starbuck's to enter the competition as well, and so at 6:00 we cut up our brownies and distributed them for judging. As I knew I would, I won. But we decided to make the bake offs into a version of Iron Chef, which we can host each Sunday. In addition to their being a different theme each Sunday, the winner will get to wear a special pin on their apron for the whole week, until the next competition.

Speaking of the next competition, the theme is cupcakes with a "fun topping"... I don't make cupcakes very often, anyone have any recipes they'd reccommend?

-Neil

Current Music: "Safiotou" - Herbie Hancock feat. Santana and Angelique Kidjo

Onlien Banking Rocks

lightningphyre — 2005-09-20T01:09:04-05:00

So, basically, I finally got my online bank account to work, and it's so wonderful...

-Neil

Current Music: "Lump" - Presidents of the United States

Caution When Wet

lightningphyre — 2005-09-20T08:09:20-05:00

Iron Chef Starbucks: Cupcake Battle

lightningphyre — 2005-09-26T01:09:50-05:00

This morning I had to get up rather early because of all the homework I had put off. I knew I was gonna have to get it done because I had work from 1:00 to 6:00 and I thought we were going out to dinner after that, but I'll get to that.

It turns out our internet has been broken for like the past four days and I had a Science assignment due on the internet today so I went over to Jimmy's house to use their computer. The funny thing was that Jimmy was still asleep, so I was like, hey Jim (Sr.) and I just led myself to the computer.

When I was done with that I went home, and since it took me awhile to do the whole Science shin-dig I had to start getting ready for work as I had not yet showered. After getting cleaned, dressed, and ready to leave, I luckily remembered to get all my cupcakes to take to the Bake-Off for Starbucks. As the second ever Iron Chef Starbucks, the theme this week was "Cupcakes with a Fun Topping." I had made these chocolate cupcakes that had cherries inside them with frosting and cherries on top, and I had made these yellow cake cupcakes, but I had used root beer instead of water and they had ground up root beer hard candies mixed in and on frosting on top.

Work was really fun today, and jessica told me an interesting story about what she did last night. When it finally got to 6:00, I decided to enter the chocolate-cherry cupcakes as my entry and I went up against Scott's sunken-in chocolate cupcakes that had frosting letters on them, and Jenna's chocolate cupcakes that ahd frosting and gummy worms on them.

After much confusion, it was decided there was a three-way tie. We asked two customers to help us decide, and they narrowed it down to a two-way tie between Scott and I.

Finally, needing to leave in fear of beign late for my dad's birthday dinner, we left one of my cupcakes and one of Scott's cupcakes for another partner to try, and hopefully I'll know his decision by tomorrow.

So on my way home I call my both my parents approximately five times each before giving up. They finally call me back ten minutes later and inform me of how we are not going out to dinner. Whatever, I had to burn a bunch of CD's anyways.

To make a long story short for the rest of the night, I ende dup missing more than half of the Deperate Housewive's premiere because my parents are both psychos who shout way too much, I spent a good ten minutes erradicating my existence from any part of the house otuside of my bedroom so they woudn't be abel to throw any of my "shit" around like they'd been doing, and I organized my Harry Potter books while they continued to shout.

It made me smile when I read about myself in Caitlin's blog.

-Neil

Current Music: "Clowns" - T.A.T.U.

Chubby Rain

lightningphyre — 2005-09-27T12:09:45-05:00

It's raining outside.

Big deal, you say. Well, it is a big deal, for a rain-starved freak like me. I love rainy, cloudy weather, and today is the first time it's rained in months. And, not only did it rain, we are talking full on thunder storm. A BIG thunder storm at that.

As if rain wasn't good enough, today was the first time it rained while I was working, and it was pretty cool. Plus, Jimmy, his mom, my mom, and Andrew all droppedin at work to see me. All-in-all, it was a good day at work.

My dad just dragged me outside to take the dog for a walk. Now, I amy love the rain, but I don't like being in it. Luckily, the storm has passed over us, so while we can still see the lightning and hear the thunder, it's only sprinkling outside our house. However, I took an umbrella.

But, for some reason, I decided to wear a t-shirt, smallish gym shorts, and flip-flops. My toes are kinda cold. But being out in the rain was wonderful. I hope it continues at school tomorrow.

-Neil

Current Music: "No Rain" - Blind Melon

Emo Legs and Art Auctions

lightningphyre — 2005-09-28T01:09:00-05:00

Today, at school, a kid told me if I had black hair I'd fit right in at the Underground, which is this place where bands play. I asked, "Why?" and he said it was because of my emo legs...

I was like, "What the hell are you talking about?" So he had me pull my jeans tight and said they were emo legs because they're the right type of skinny or something. And he also said they were perfect for hardcore dancing. Then I laughed and went to my locker.

Around 5:00 my dad picked me up from home so we could go the pre-show for the KVIE Art Auction. I was dressed up real nice and had my old fogey sun glasses on, and I felt pretty spiffy.

Anyways, at the station I was the youngest person because everyone else was pretty much big-name people from KVIE or from around Sacramento. I mean, even though I was dressed up, I was underdressed. It was pretty cool, being able to give my opinion on the art I was looking at with the older, richer people standing next to me.

All in all, there was some pretty good pieces. I convinced my mom to bid on two pieces, one which would look god in our house and one for her office. There were a couple pieces I liked better, but we have nowhere to hang them...

I also got a ton of compliments on my scratchboard because I had a picture of it on my cell-phone and my mom kept telling me to show it to people.

"Emo kid", "Pretty art" and "Pretty people" are all suggested tags.

-Neil

Current Music: "Soul Meets Body" - Death Cab for Cutie

September Has Ended

lightningphyre — 2005-10-01T04:10:56-05:00

I went to the Green Day concert tonight (techinically last night), and it rocked my world. But let's start at the beginning.

After school, at around 3:00, I got to Starbuck's to meet up with Amanda and Alex so we could have the now weekly Friday Spin. This is basically where we go out to the grass and spin around and around and around. Alex had to go to a doctor's appointment though, and so we parted ways, each wishing each other a good time at the concert, since we both were going to be there.

At around 5:40, I leave my house in order to get to Colin's house by 6:30, since he was the one who invited me to go to the concert with him and because it was at his house that I was going to get a ride.

After a pretty cool car ride, we finally get to Arco Arena, and lo and behold, what car is right next to us as we're trying to get into the parking lots? Alex's! So I yelled at him. Long story short, what follows are (crappy, my camera phone sucks) pictures, that are mostly in chronological order:

Jimmy Eat World opened, and although they were okay, they weren't that into it, and I found myself just wishing for them to get off and Green Day to take the stage.

These girls in front of us were trying to push farther forward during Jimmy Eat World, but these other girls weren't having it, and they were all literally an inch away from fighting. Everyone around was laughing at them, but they didn't seem to understand.

This is me waiting for Green Day to get on stage; there was like a half hour wait between Jimmy Eat World and Green Day.

This is Billy Joe Armstrong obviously, wearing a crown during some song, I forget which.

The above picture looks so much cooler on my phone.

At some point during the concert, push came to shove, and this huge, giant 6'infinity" guy got pissed at this 5'6" guy. They were about to fight, but people were holding them back. I was so excited, because the shorter guy would've gotten his ass kicked, but people were doing everything to stop them from fighting. The big guys shirt actually started to rip he was trying to get to the little guy so hard. And the little guy actualyl wanted to fight.

Security guards eventually came and warned the big guy or something, and shined a light in our eyes because we were too close to them.

Even though the concert was great, there were fat, sweaty girls everywhere. Which was gross.

Mr. Lorenc would comment on this because Billy Joe kept making crucifix poses.

During the song, "Wake Me Up When September Ends", someone threw a shirt on stage. It landed right on Billy Joe Armstrong's head, adn he slung it over his shoulder for a while. It wasn't until after the concert I learned it was the anti-war shirt my friend Colin had been wearing. He wanted Billy Joe Armstrong to read it.

Waving the mike-stand...

This was the background for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". I felt like I should've recognised the face; is it the Mona Lisa's?

Cell phones and lighters during "Boulevard of Broken Dreams".

Confetti after "Boulevard..."

After the concert, I found out Colin had caught Bilyl Joe Armstrong's tie when he threw it into the crowd. He had to curl up into the fetal position, because people were trying to take it, but he got it. Then he gave it to his girlfriend. I would've kept it for myself.

We went to a gas station, I downed two Red Bulls in two minutes, I smell like B.O. and pot, yada yada yada. It was a great night.

-Neil

Current Music: "American Idiot" - Green Day

P.S. The concert was September 30th. Billy Joe Armstrong pointed this out as he was segueing into "Wake Me Up". Sacramento owns!

P.P.S. Floor tickets bitches!

Mashpot

lightningphyre — 2005-10-08T01:10:23-05:00

Aauugh.... I haven't entered anything in forever... I had all this great stuff to say and now that I'm actually typing I just wanna go to sleep. Damn. Blog-idleness.

I met up with Alex and Amanda at Starbuck's today because it's become a tradition to spin on the grass by the drive-thru after school. But I was all dressed up because we had dress attire today at school. so instead of spinning we got an indo board, a Chuck E. Cheese bouncy ball, bubbles and some bamboo matts out of Alex's trunk and just longed around looking like complete hippies.

I've become addicted to Caramel Apple Ciders. Too bad I can't get them free.

Recently I found out some information that I was excited about. It could lead to the best day of my life. Basically I might be seeing I thought I would never see again.

This Sunday is the The Mars Volta/Hella/System of a Down concert. I can't wait!

The other day somehow I ended up with some of those things where you pull the paper tab apart and you can smell the cologne. You know, those ad things. Anyways, I found this really awesome smelling one and after showing it to my mom I left it on the table with allt he other ones. Anyways, today I was looking for it because I thought I might buy it in the future, but it wasn't there. It was the only one missing.

I asked my mom if she had seen it, and she replied, "Which? The Onyx?" And I said yea, and she said she didn't know where it was. But ti struck me as odd that she remembered the name of it since she has a crappy memory, she wasn't really interested in it when I showed it to her and I could barely remember the name. So I think she took it because she's planning on giving it to me as a gift since I turn 17 in only eleven days!

-Neil

Current Music: "Tertiatic ESP" - The Mars Volta

The Concert

lightningphyre — 2005-10-11T12:10:03-05:00

Last night, at Arco Arena, System of a Down played. Opening for them were Hella and The Mars Volta. Here's how it looked:

Hella was hella bad. But I took pictures anyways:

Next up was The Mars Volta. They were hella good, and Amanda (They were the reason she went, in fact) and I loved them. Jessica and Jenna didn't however. I ended up getting one of their shirts cuz all of System of a Down's merchandise sucked.

And, of course, the main event: System of a Down. THEY WERE AMAZINGLY AWESOME.

And of course, Amanda took soem pictures and sent them to me. Here's her point of view:

-Neil

Current Music: "Revenga" - System of a Down

The Blog Index

lightningphyre — 2005-10-11T12:10:35-05:00

I'm so happy there is now a Blog Index. According to it, this my 271st post.

Hooray.

-Neil

Good Day

lightningphyre — 2005-10-15T03:10:47-05:00

I've been awake for an hour and it's already been an awesome day.

The Grocery Store

lightningphyre — 2005-10-15T09:10:06-05:00

I was at the grocery store about half an hour ago buying ingredients for my cake for tomorrow's Iron Chef Starbucks Cake Battle, and I was standing in line. I think the guy in front of me was on crack.

When I say this, I don't mean I think he was crazy. I mean I literally think he was tripping on crack cocaine. It was weird.

Tonight I'm going to Benihana's with my family and two of my best friends to celebrate my birthday which happens to be this Tuesday. I'm kinda pissed though, because since my sister is having a friend sleep over tonight, her friend gets to come. This is supposed to be for me and my friends, not for my retarded sister and her friends.

-Neil

Current Music: "You'll Never Guess Who Died" - The Kinison

Red text is the correct version of "butchered" words...

Iron Chef Starbucks: Cake Battle

lightningphyre — 2005-10-16T10:10:57-05:00

This morning I woke up at 7:40 in order to bake a cake.

Hold up, what?

That's right, I had to wake up at 7:40 to bake a cake because I was going to brunch and work was at 1:00 so I wouldn't have time to bake in between. Anyways, I made this delicious two layer yellow cake with Mandarin oranges and their juice blended into the cake batter, and with a very light frosting made out of whipped topping, vanilla pudding mix, and crushed pineapple. As Amanda said, "That sounds gross." Yet, Amanda voted me first place... Hmm.

Anyways, I went to work, and it was a pretty good day. I got to have a lunch break, which was unexpected, so I jsut went to Ralphs and bought a Taurus Russatus (Red Bull) and made a Green Tea Lemonade but with half Lemonade and half Red Bull. Delicious.

Half an hour before I was off, we had a fatty rush in Drive Thru, which i was primary register on. Uggh. But eventually it was 6:00 and time for Iron Chef Starbucks.

Five people entered this week, the theme obviously being Cake. Amanda entered with some cherry cake remniscent of cobbler. Scott had a fricking four layered chocolate cake which was very attractive, but tasted average. Jessica made some basic Betty Crocker Strawberry cake that I could point out in the store and Meigan made a Cheesecake.

Meigan and Amanda ended up tieing for first, with me coming in second, but I think our voting system is flawed.

I'm sad, I didn't get to hear "Safiotou" today. But I'm happy, because Katie gave me the new T.A.T.U. CD last night. Oh god I'm a loser...

-Neil

Current Music: I dunno...

P.S. MY BIRTHDAY'S IN TWO DAYS!!!

Toss Your Milk

lightningphyre — 2005-10-18T01:10:52-05:00

You've heard the expression "Toss your cookies", but what about the milk? Well, sometimes it gets tossed as well.

Lately at workt his one guy has been saying he could drink a whole gallon of milk at once. We, as in the rest of the employees, know that this is frickin' scientifcally impossible. But he refused to listen to the facts. So today, we called him on it.

We arranged to have a gallon of milk brought to the store at 10:00PM, which is the time that the close is finished. We all met up with the closers and egged him on. He began chugging and got about a third of the way before he started having trouble.

We watched happily as around the halfway mark he started gagging. He tried to make himself throw up but only got some spit-up, like a little baby. But soon, he puked. A lot. And it was all milky white. Gross. Much better than Laguna Beach.

The best part was, we bought the milk with his money.

-Neil

Current Music: "Loser" - Three Doors Down (I Think)

P.S. My seventeenth birthday is tomorrow!

It's My Birthday

lightningphyre — 2005-10-19T01:10:45-05:00

I was up at 12:00 AM this morning, so that I could be up when it became my birthday. That's right, today's my seventeenth birthday.

The day was pretty good, I wore a little blue "Birthday Boy" ribbon at school. A bunch of people said "Happy Birthday" to me, and Jon even got me a CD. It's some guy I had never heard of before, but it's pretty cool so far.

When I went into work at 6:00 there were a bunch of balloons weighted down by a Red Bull which Amanda got me. I forgot them at the store though... Jenna got me the Herbei Hancock CD, which i only wanted for the "Safiotou" song.

Work was... Not too bad, but the worst part of my day. But I got to draw the Coffee of the Week board, and its Kenya, so its interesting, which made me happy.

-Neil

Current Music: The Birthday Song

P.S. I'm kind of freaking out because the birthdays blog hasn't updated yet today and I don't want them to skip today since it's my brithday. What if they forget? I've waited a long time for my name to show up on that blog and I don't want to get cheated.

no subject

lightningphyre — 2005-10-22T02:10:44-05:00

Tonight, at work, we called the cops on some kids who were playing in the street.

Caffeine Addicted Crack Heads

lightningphyre — 2005-10-26T01:10:58-05:00

At work, we thought tonight was the Full Moon. It turns out it's the Last Quarter Moon, but we thought it was full tonight. Why? Because every crackhead within a 100 mile radius came in to get coffee.

For example: The guy who asked for a Triple Tall Mocha. The barista asked, "You wanted a Triple Tall Mocha?" He shouted, "NO! The baby wants a Triple Tall Mocha!" The baby was like two months old, and the guy was all over the place.

Or, how about the two obviously stoned kids who I saw bugging out through the Drive-Thru Window?

Or, the guy who shouted, "CAFE! MOCHA! GRANDE!" And drove to the window as fast as possible.

Let us not forget the crazy rapist/communist/radical/bicyclist/stalker who talked to Jenna for about half an hour until the exterminator saved her. She ended up giving him one of her friends phone numbers and saying it was hers.

Also crazy, but not quite crack head worthy, was my friend who came through the Drive-Thru with ehr friend driving, popped out from behind the car in full Harry Potter regalia, and asked me to Homecoming. I was laughing pretty hard.

-Neil

Current Music: "When Doves Cry" - Prince (I assume that's what it's called)

Two Night Stand

lightningphyre — 2005-10-30T10:10:10-05:00

Yesterday, 10/29/05:

Yesterday I started my day off right, with a swim meet. I didn't even know about the swim meet until the night before, but I went to it and had some fun with the swim gang.

Later than night, around 11:00, we went to Denny's. Corina and Bonnie were dressed up as who knows what on roller blades, Eryka was a witch, but in like black boots and a puffy black vest, Matt was a soccer player, and Emily was a cowgirl, slut style. I didn't have time to dress up, but I wish I had. Jimmy and Spencer also came along.

The guy who seated us bet us five dollars we all couldn't fit in one booth, so we took him on and squeezed four people onto each side.

My Nilla Chilla (Coke with Vanilla) wasn't that great, but it was great when we randomly burst into our remix/mash-up of Row Your Boat and Holla Back Girl. It wasn't great when the waitress forgot Eryka's sundae, but it was great when Bonnie skated over to another table to get sugar, stopped herself at the table, but her feet kept on going and she fell. The girls near us almost died laughing.

Today, 10/30/05:

I wa son Drive-Thru today at work, which was okay until the whole world decided to drop in and get coffee. I hate when one car orders like ten frappuccinos and holds up the rest of the line who all only want like one drink. Augggh.

Now I'm working on my Latin Portfolio, which was due on Friday. And I've barely made a dent. I doubt I'll be able to turn it in until Tuesday. And tomorrow's Halloween, when will I find the time?

When I logged in today, there was this survey about how to make Mindsay better. I gave them a piece of my mind, I did.

-Neil

P.S. Daylight Savings Time is confuzing.

Push Off to Satellite 248

lightningphyre — 2005-12-04T02:12:28-05:00

There once was a little alien.

He had three friends. Two of the friends (Alpha and Beta) had been to the forbidden satellite 248, and one of them (Gamma) hadn't. The two friends who had been decided they wanted to take the little alien and the other friend to the satellite one day.

On the day they were going to go, they were going to wait for Beta to be able to go, but then Gamma found out she had to bathe in Kandrona rays only half an hour after Beta was able to go, so they decided not to wait for Beta.

Alpha told the little aliens how to input the diretions to satellite 248 into their travel pods, and they were off. After pressing the start button six times, the little alien was finally off.

They were all heading along, when they decided to go to the Intergalactic Denny's. On their way however, the little alien found himself slipping off course. Everything started to get tight, and loud, and the ship was pushing in on him. He realized he had shot way past satellite 248 and was past all satellites. He was heading for a black hole.

The world pushed in on him, and he was freaking out. His mouth was chewing itself apart, and his teeth were pouring down his throat, but there were more than normal, and they never stopped. It kept getting worse; he was scared and happy at the same time. The black hole had him.

Finally, somehow, he found his way back to Alpha and Gamma. They got to the Intergalactic Denny's, and the first thing the little alien did was go to the bathroom. He peed for about an hour.

They all ordered, and it was the best meal any of them had ever had.

Finally, they headed back to the space port to pick up Beta. Gamma went to her Kandrona bath, and Alpha, Beta and the little alien decided to push off to satellite 248 again.

This time, they all made it safely and had a great time.

My Future Mutant-hood

lightningphyre — 2005-12-09T01:12:47-05:00

Someday, I will be like the X-Men. Why? Because of microwaves.

WTF? you say.

Well, when I cook food in the microwave, I like to stand reeeaaaal close and watch it go round and round through the little window thing. I don't really know why, I mean, I don't need to. I just have nothing else to do for the short time my food is cooking.

Except for when I'm making Maruchan Instant Lunches. You know, those styrofoam cups with noodles and spices. I never boil water and then pour it into the cups like you're supposed to. Rather, I pour water in the cup, then heat the whole thing in the microwave.

Anyways, it is my firm belief that in order to get it to taste right, you must bring the water as boiling-y as possible without it spilling out of the cup. In this case, I must watch the cup as it cooks.

Anyways, I one day asked my dad if standing next tot he microwave is bad for you. He said, "Yes." I haven't learned yet.

Assuming I don't die from the microwave, and instead get superpowers, I hope I get the ability to read people's minds. That would be the best. I also hope I can fly. Flying is kinda a useless power as powers go, but it'd be soo cool. But if I get the power of flight it has to be with wings and not Superman style, because Superman style is retarded.

I say all this because I just cooked an Instant Lunch. A Creamy Pesto one in fact. They happen to be my favorite. My second favorite is the Cheddar Cheese Flavor. The worst are the wonton ones because they fall apart...

You know that one X-Man? I think his name was Ace. What was up with him? I mean, all he did was throw cards that exploded upon impact. That's not really a super power. It's kinda just a skill. He was a sucky X-Man.

-Neil

Current Music: "Paranoid Android" - Radiohead

P.S. My friend Keller tells me the X-Man was named Gambit, not Ace, and that he could blow other things up besides cards. I think Keller is kind of a nerd...

Make Up Your Mind

lightningphyre — 2005-12-10T02:12:23-05:00

Today was very bad. And very good. At very different times. I guess the best way is just a blow-by-blow...

Good:
Today was a late start at school so I got to sleep in an extra hour and a half.

Bad:
On my way to school, I stopped at a Starbucks. Trying to leave this Starbucks' parking lot, I hit a parked car. And then another car. Within fifteen seconds. And there was a cop watching from his car the whole time.

Bad:
I spilled Tuxedo on my shirt.

Bad:
I got to school and found I was not called back for a second audition for Aladdin. It's possible I made it straight to the cast. And it's possible my dad is actually Voldemort.

Bad:
Spent my normally leisurely twenty minutes before school running around trying to find a teacher. Who I did not find.

Bad:
Spent half of my only break at school once again looking for this teacher. Once again he was missing.

Bad:
In the second half of my break, I set my backpack down by my friends and went to my locker. When I came back, my backpack was covered in clam chowder. And those fucking assholes were laughing.

Bad:
After the clam chowder, I had to immediately proceed to an hour of Latin.

Good:
Goofed off in Chemistry. Like always.

Bad:
Was at school late, so I saw all the people arrivng for Aladdin call-backs. Remembered I wasn't one of them.

Good:
Went to the mall with my mom for what was supposed to be a trip to help me writ emy Christmas list. Namely, find out what size UGGs I wear. Ended up buying a pair of black UGGs, an awesome shirt from Fitch, and my mom bought some stuff she wouldn't let me see.

Good:
The Jamba Juice in the mall managed to get my complicated order right. It only happens half the time.

-Neil

Current Music: Requiem for a Dream Theme

P.S. I decided that because everyone abbreviates "Abercrombie & Fitch" to "Abercrombie," I will call it "Fitch".

Profile

lightningphyre — 2005-12-11T04:12:17-05:00

I just filled out the new Sports and Organizations sections of my profile.

I must say I'm very happy about the sports one. If you read, you'll see why.

-Neil

Current Music: Some song that was on the Contemporary Blend playlist at work last night.

Whoop! There it is!

lightningphyre — 2005-12-13T10:12:10-05:00

I've only typed the title and already I have the suggested tag "whoop".

Anyways, yesterday in home room we received a handout informing us (the student body) that there had been a case of pertussis at the school. Now, you probably don't know what pertussis is. TWIST! You probably do! It's whooping cough! Hooray!

Anyways, the flyer included symptoms, precautions the school was going to take, and information informing us that although most people are protected by the immunization they receive early on, not everyone is. Luckily, there are antibiotics.

Anyways, all day yesterday and today, whenever someone's coughed, they usually yell "Whoop" afterwards. So, at lunch, I was asking around trying to find out what the whoop actually sounds like.

A friend of mine said his brother had had whooping cough about three months ago. I kept asking him what the whoop sounded like, and he kept informing me what it was. Now, I knew the whoop is the inhalation of air after a coughing spell, I just didn't know what it sounded like. Finally, after about three attempts I finally made him understand I wanted to know what the whoop sounded like.

So, he imitated it. It sounded more like a gasp than a whoop. In fact, it didn't sound like a whoop at all. I was throughly dissappointed.

-Neil

Current Music: If I tell you you'll laugh.

Whoop! There it is! PART 2

lightningphyre — 2005-12-14T12:12:58-05:00

I now know what the whooping cough sounds like!!!

Check it out here: http://www.whoopingcough.net/wc-adult.wav

-Neil

PSAT Results

lightningphyre — 2005-12-15T02:12:22-05:00

So, I took the PSAT. And here are my results.

Critical Reading: 66
Scored higher than 91% of juniors.
Expected SAT Range: 580-720
Answered correctly 40 of 48 questions.
My pattern of correct and incorrect answers does not provide clear evidence about my specific critical reading strengths and weaknesses.

Math: 66
Scored higher than 92% of juniors.
Expected SAT Range: 610-730
Answered correctly 32 of 38 questions.
I can improve by "Recognizing logical key words" and "Using answer choices to help solve the problem."

Writing Skills: 69
Scored higher than 94% of juniors.
Expected SAT Range: 580-710
Answered correctly 34 of 39 questions.
My pattern of correct and incorrect answers does not provide clear evidence about my specific critical reading strengths and weaknesses.

There you have it. Me. As determined by standardized testing.

-Neil

Presents of All Kinds

lightningphyre — 2005-12-16T02:12:41-05:00

Lately, my parents have really been bugging me about work. This has always been a problem, but it started escalating a few days ago. My mom has been insisting I ask for even more random days off for even randomer reasons, but that's nothing compared to what my dad did.

I did not clean my room this past weekend, even though he asked me to, and so on Monday morning my dad informed me that I would be grounded from working next week. I told him, "That's not something you can do. You can't decide that I won't be scheduled next week." But he demanded I get everyday off.

So that night I went to request all of next week off, figuring I might have a chance since the schedule isn't normally made until Wednesday. I got to work, found out they had already made the schedule, and smiled. They hadn't printed it out yet, though, so I didn't know what days I would be working. I informed my parents of this and my dad told me that as soon as they printed I needed to start finding people to cover for me as he would not be allowing me to go into work, no matter what.

Last night I went into work from 4-9, something both of my parents weren't hapy about as they think I've been working too late of hours. Anyways, when I got home, I was hella grumpy and I kinda let them know it. I had been planning something though, and when I was alone with my mom and she brought up something about work I informed her I was thinking about quitting. She asked why and I said because I don't get paid enough.

She looked at me like I was crazy, and I informed her that I get paid enough for what I do at Starbucks, but I get paid absolutely nothing for the overtime bullshit that is dealing with my mom and dad. I told her this work was ten times harder than anything I actually do at work, and that it was funny how they were so big on me getting a job and now they were trying to keep me from it.

I had prepared for this speech, and with the proper circumstances and preparation, I'm sometimes able to cry on demand. I managed to squeeze out a few tears, and used all my manipulative powers to work my mom. I got her to the point where she was almost crying that I was so pissed at her and my dad.

My dad came downstairs, and before he realized something was going on, informed me that he decided it doesn't matter how clean or unclean I keep my room, as long as I'm happy. I wanted to yell at him because this is what I've been saying forever, especially due to the fact that I keep my door closed at all times, and that the only way someone would see inside my room is to walk out of thier way all the way to the end of the upstairs hall and open my door. But I played it cool.

Soon enough he realized something was going on, and left me with my mom. We went throught the whole post-argument thing, but I kept her at a distance and finally after we sorta made up I said I had to do my homework, leaving her still in the cold. So for about half an hour I just sat in front of the computer and smiled, knowing I had completely wrapped my parents around my finger better than at any other time. I considered it my Christmas present to myself. Some people hate manipulative people. I think there's a lot to be said for the skill.

Anyways, my parents have been completely walking on eggshells around me today and super nice. I'm no longer grounded from work next week, and I don't think I have to worry about my parents trying to keep me from work very much anytime soon. In fact, I'm scheduled to work the nights before my first and second finals, and originally they told me I had to find someone to cover my shifts, and now they've scaled it back to they'd like me to look into possibly maybe getting my shifts covered.

But anyways, today, after a successful day at school, with a successful Latin Club bake sale, I came home. Seeing I was alone, I went to work on my favorite pass-time, Present Hunting. You see, whenever it's a birthday, Easter time, or Christmas, my parents normally hide presents in their closets, their cars, and the garage. Often the present are in black trash bags or under towels/blankets.

So today I couldn't check the cars, because they weren't home, but I did search the closets and garage. The cloests were clear, but I found two stores of presents in the garage. One was in a garbage bag under some empty ornament boxes and one was under a large blanket in an out of the way corner. Here's what I found:

In the Trash Bag (seemed to be sister oriented)
A pair of fake UGGS, probably for my sister
A basket of bath & body supplies, most definitely for sister
A watch, likely for sister
Jacket from T.J.Maxx, definitely for sister
Two wrapped presents, guess is for sister
Curling iron, for sister

Under the Blanket (more me oriented)
Pair of black UGGS, definitely for me (I tried them on and stood at the counter as my mom bought them)
Talking fly swatter, for my dad
Shirt from 'Fitch, probably for me
Wrapping paper, for presents, duh
Glown in the Dark Ouija board, for sister, from me,
CD Case, definitely for me
Sirius Satellite radio, definitely for me, I went with my dad to Best Buy to pick it out
Uptown Girls on DVD, hopefully for sister
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on DVD, likely for me
The Office on DVD, probably for me or my dad
Some Mega Bloks Pyrate Thing, I have absolutely no idea who this is for
Book of Sudokus, either for dad or for me from dad
Wonka themed candy, most likely for stockings
DVD player with about a bajillion speakers, for family?

Well there you have it. I can't wait until Christmas, especially with the way my parents are respecting me.

-Neil

Current Music: "Jumper" - Third Eye Blind

Acting and Puking

lightningphyre — 2005-12-18T03:12:12-05:00

I wasn't home last night, so this blog runs from yesterday to today.

Friday, 12/16:
Yesterday, we had a late start at school, so of course, I stopped at Starbucks on my way there. As I was standing in line, two seniors from school walked in, both of whom I recognised. I saw one of them, and thought to myself, "Oh, he got cast as Aladdin in the play." Which reminded me, I didn't get cast at all.

Anyways, after dealing with the retarded baristas, I got my Venti three pack Refresh tea, and headed to school. My first class was Art of Film, which was lucky because we're allowed to eat and drink in that class and I wasn't halfway done with my drink. The people around me got pissed because they thought it smelled bad, which is bullshit because it's spearemint.

Anyways, next I had Computer Apps., and when I got there my teacher told me I had a note. This is not uncommon, but when he gave it to me I felt upset because I realized it was from the Drama Department. They always send "Thanks for trying out" letters, and I almost didn't read it. I did, however, and I was pleasantly surprised.

It was a letter saying that they had to do some recasting, and because they had decided I was First Male Alternate, they wanted to offer me a position in the Male Ensemble. This is like extras, and includes palace guards, citizens, genie assistants, tap-dancing lunatics, etc.

I was so excited, but then I realized that although the envelope said Neil Clark on it, the letter said, "Dear Nick,." I freaked out, and wondered whether it was for me or someone else.

I then spent my break looking for the right people to ask, but I couldn't find them. Finally, after enduring the rest of the day, I found Mrs. McGwire and she informed me that it was a typo and was truly intended for me. I was happy, and gladly took the part. The only problem is I don't know how this is going to fit in with work and swimming.

Anyways, when I finally got off work at 11:40, I headed home, changed, and headed to the swim club because we were celebrating my friend Matt's 18th brithday with a club sleep-over.

Saturday, 12/17:
When I got there, a game of Sardines was in full sway. We continued to play that for a few rounds, then we went and put our feet in the hot tub.

While around the hot tub, we had lots of discussions. One of them was about we were afraid of. We remembered the Nickelodeon show "Are You Afriad of the Dark?" Now, I've always remembered this show, and even though I swim, I oftentimes get freaked out by pools because of an episode I saw involving a school pool. I learned that night that another one of my friends also remembered this episode, and we commiserated together.

Eventually we ended up exercising on the treadmills, playing Butts Up in the racquet ball court, and talking about throwing up while rolling around on those exercise balls. The puke conversation was kind of gross, but it's always fun to talk about spewing chunks.

Finally, at about four A.M. we went to sleep on yoga mats. I think we woke up around 9 or 10, and then layed there until eleven. We all knew it was time to go at the same time, and parted ways.

Today I told my parents I was studying Chemistry for my final on Monday. In actuality I was reading Harry Potter 6. Which I guess is kind of like Chemisty because of all the potions.

At around 6:00, I decided I'm close to death. My head hurts like shit, I've been coughing non-stop, and I keep on getting chills. And to make matters worse, I found out yesterday the kid with whooping cough was in my math class, and he had it for three weeks before he realized it.

-Neil

Current Music: "Get Busy" - Sean Paul

The First Finals

lightningphyre — 2005-12-19T11:12:12-05:00

This morning I got up and got ready for school... Yep, you read it right. Anyways, all the kids in public school are already out for Winter Break, but we at Jesuit have finals today, tommorrow, and Wednesday. Anyways, today I had my Chem Honors final and my Computer Apps. final.

On my way to school, I had to stop at Starbucks, because I had a huge headache and needed caffeine to help ease the pain. I got a kids chocolate milk with a shot of espresso, because it's super cheap, but they ended up making me and Iced Tall Mocha. Hey, I wasn't complaining.

My first final was my Chem final, and I kinda fucked it up, allegedly. I just hope I passed it so it doesn't affect my grade.

I'm pretty sure I completely aced my Computers final though. Which is good.

On a different note, I've noticed I don't have the patience to eat candy canes. I bought a box of Starburst Strawberry flavored candy canes, and I really like how they taste, but I suck on them for like five minutes and then get bored.

-Neil

Current Music: "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" - The Mars Volta

I Hate to Ride My Bicycle

lightningphyre — 2006-01-08T07:01:43-05:00

So, I got up at 8:00 this morning to drive from the house I was sleeping at to my house so I could get ready for work. I get home no problem, and I get ready for work.

Well, as I'm ready to leave with about ten minutes until I'm about to start working (it only takes me 3 to get to work), I get in my car, and turn the key. It turns on, then after a second turns off.

It does this the next three times I try to start it.

I frantically call my parents who are out of town to see if there is a key to the car they left behind anywhere in the house. There isn't. I realize I'm gonna have to ride a bike to work.

Now, you must know, I haven't ridden a bike in about 5 years. This is because I hate riding bikes. So, after calling the store and letting them know I might be a little late, I pull a bike out of the garage. It's way too small, the seat is too low, and the tires are flat, but I don't have time to pump the tires or change the seat. Shoving my apron into my pocket I'm off.

I now appreciate just how far the three minute car ride is to the store, and I remember why I hate bikes. What's worse is I never really understood how to change gears on a bike, so I think the ride was harder than it had to be.

I have never been late to work before. Today I was nine minutes late, and it crushed me.

-Neil

Current Music: "Tear You Apart" - She Wants Revenge

P.S. Amanda, thank you so much for the ride home.

Scratching A Name For Myself

lightningphyre — 2006-01-12T02:01:32-05:00

So, as the beginning of the new semester, it's also the beginning of my foray into Studio Art 2A. This means that I basically get to choose what I want to do, in whatever medium I want to do. I was originally going to do a sculpture/assemblage of a person, but I couldn't find any good forms for it so I started looking for other ideas.

I remembered I had a blank clayboard, and since everyone loved (talk about humble) my first (and only) scratchboard, I figured I'd do another. Well, I had to find an image.

And I did. Here it is. Click for the full size:

In case you don't know what a scratchboard looks like, here's my last one so that you can get a frame of reference. Sorry about the low quality, I took the pic with a camera phone. It has since been framed in an ornate, gaudy, gold frame we thought was fitting with the content. Once again, click for the full size:

So hopefully it'll turn out well. I'll keep you posted.

-Neil

Current Music: "1976" - RJD2

Idiots in the Drive-Thru

lightningphyre — 2006-01-15T03:01:40-05:00

At Starbucks, a Grande Latte, which costs three dollars, consists of two shots of Espresso, steamed milk, and a quarter inch of foam. No White Chocolate Mocha syrup to be found. At Starbucks, adding White Chocolate Mocha syrup to a drink costs thirty cents. A Grande Latte with White Chocolate Mocha should cost three dollars and thirty cents, not three dollars.

Tonight, a lady came through Drive-Thru, and part of her order was a Grande Latte with two pumps of White Chocolate Mocha syrup.

The lady was uspet that I was going to charge her for the WM, proceeding to try and convince me that the policy was that if it's half or less of the pumps for a White Mocha, then we don't charge.

I told her, that would be correct, if she was ordering a White Mocha. She kept insisting I didn't know the policy, so I asked my shift supervisor. They agreed that I was right. She was still upset, suggested my shift call Corporate, insisted I wasn't sorry even though I politely and repeatedly try to assure her I was, and finally said she didn't want anything. She said that if I was truly sorry, I would just overlook it because it was only thrity cents. I thought, if it's only thirty cents, why can't she pay it?

She comes in, grabs a stack of Comment Cards, ask what the shift's name is, then storms out.

Was I wrong? Simply, "No."

About ten minutes later, another lady came through Drive-Thru and asked for a Venti White Mocha, with one pump of Peppermint. I begin to punch it into the register, when she clarifies she want's "Half... No, one quarter pump of Peppermint." I punch it in for a Venti White Mocha with Peppermint and tell her it'll be $4.25 or whatever it was. She sits at the menu board for about half a minute, then drives up.

She asked me if I was charging her for Peppermint. Dejavu. I explain that if a syrup isn't in the recipe, we charge for it. She gets upset that I'm charging her for so little Peppermint, but because I'm reminded of what happened 10 minutes earlier, I decide to be consistent. She finally pays for it and leaves.

Does anyone else get the feeling she's friends with the first lady and was sent to check on me?

God, I hate customers who think they know how to work the system. I'd rather have ten customers who actually knows how to work the system, then one customer who thinks they do. The worst is when they get pissed at you because they are wrong.

-Neil

Current Music: "This Is Such A Pity"

On the Possibility of a South Park Pokemon

lightningphyre — 2006-01-20T07:01:28-05:00

In response to the belief that the character Timmy from the television show "South Park" is a Pokemon, it must be known that there are qualifications to the proposed theory. This theory states that due to the fact that Timmy is only able to speak his own name, which matches the verbal skills of Pokemon, and that he is an excellant fighter, another skill Pokemon lust after, he must in fact be a Pokemon.

The preeminent detractions to this theory are that Timmy speaks words other than his name, these words including "Livin' a lie" and "Gobblez." The belief behind this argument is that Pokemon are able to speak nothing other than their name.

However, it is a well known fact that the Meowth who accompanies Jesse and James of Team Rocket is able to speak perfect English and communicate with humans (Meowth). This Meowth proves that there are Pokemon who are able to verbally communicate with people, making it a possibility that Timmy is indeed still a Pokemon.

To further stress this point, there are the Legendary Pokemon (Legendary Pokemon). Exceedingly rare, and often unique, Pokemon, a select few of these creatues are able to communicate psychically with humans. Timmy has not been shown to have this ability, but it significantly increases the chances that he is able to speak more than his name. Perhaps Timmy is not posessed of the full vocal abilities of the aforementioned Meowth, but is above average in the realm of communication.

The supporters of the Timmy Pokemon theory propose the possibility that Timmy is a "Human Pokemon." This detail is oftentimes able to confuse those not well versed in Pokemon lore.

Details about individual Pokemon are recorded in a log known as a Pokedex. These Pokedexes record all sorts of information about Pokemon, ranging from size to footprint to "Species." Each Pokemon evolutionary family, such as the Pichu-Pikachu-Raichu strain, are given a "Species" qualification. For example, the Pichu-Pikachu-Raichu family are known as "Mouse Pokemon" (Pikachu). Sharing this "Species" title are the Rattata-Raticate family and Sandshrew-Snadslash family (List of Pokemon by species). Although this system of classification has its falws, we shall accept it for this thesis.

The Timmy Pokemon theory states that it is possible "Timmy could be a human pokemon". Although this statement is unclear, it can be assumed that by "human pokemon", it is meant that Timmy's "Species" classification is "Human Pokemon." Although there are no currently recorded Pokemon falling in this "Species", it is conceivable that, due to his perplexing nature, if Timmy is indeed a Pokemon, a "Human Pokemon" "Species" classification could be created.

Although it is yet unproven as to whether Timmy is indeed of the Pokemon family, there is credibility to the supporting theory.

-Neil

I can't believe I actually spent time on that.

Few Weeks Time

lightningphyre — 2006-02-25T02:02:54-05:00

So I haven't blogged in a while.

Well, basically, since February 8th I've been in varying levels of depression. Not suicidal or anything, jsut not happy. That's pretty blanket, I know, but it sums up these past few weeks.

-Neil

Current Music: "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt" - We Are Scientists
(Read into it)

How I Started My Day With A Car Crash

lightningphyre — 2006-04-05T12:04:25-05:00

-Neil

Testing, Treasure Hunting, and Bootlegging

lightningphyre — 2006-04-09T10:04:30-05:00

Yesterday, April 8th
I woke up yesterday morning, a Saturday, the first day of Easter Vacation, at 6:00 AM. WHY?! Who wakes up that early on a Saturday, especially the first day of vacation?

People trying to get into college, that's who. I had to take the ACT yesterday, and I needed to wake up that early.

Anyways, I think I did pretty well on the test, except I had no idea there was a Science section on it, so that kind of took me off guard. I hate science. I hate it. A lot.

After the test my dad came and picked me up, because I don't think my parents really trust me driving too much right now, and we went to lunch. After that we went to the movies, not knowing what was playing. We decided to see "The Benchwarmers". You know, that movie with the kid form "Napoleon Dynamite" and Rob Schneider. Anyways, it was the funniest thing I have seen all year. I might even go so far as to say it was funnier than "Napoleon Dynamite". So funny.

I went to work at 5:30 and was supposed to work until 10:00, but they let me leave at around 9:00. I walked out to the van, because that's what I've been driving, and I saw a note under the wind-shield wiper. It told me I was about to embark on "Long Neil Silver's Quest for Booty" and that I should proceed to Jumanji (a swampish area near my swim club). Once I reached Jumanji, I was to look for a flashlight and follow a string.

I went to Jumanji, but didn't want to get out of my car because it was dark, there was no one around, and I didn't see a flashlight. I had been drinking a Jamba Juice and really needed to pee, however, so I got out of my car and walked up to a big utility/telephone pole thing. On my way back to the car I saw a little flashlight laying on the ground, tied to a string that led into Jumanji. Cautiously, I looked around, turned on the flashlight, and went in.

After being led into the heart of Jumanji, I finally saw the string led into some pretty deep water. I groaned, and started tugging on it. Luckily, I saw that it was attached to a bottle that was floating nearby, and pulled it to shore. In the bottle was another message telling me to go home.

When I got home I saw a bucket of sand on my front porch. On the sand was a black "X", there was a shovel, and a note telling me to dig. In the sand was another note, from Amy, finally asking me to B.V.'s Junior Prom. I of course consented.

After this, I met up with the gang at WinCo. As we were about to go pick up Emily from her house, in my van no less, Bonnie earned herself the name "Bootleggin' Bonnie."

Once we picked up Emily, we drove around for a while and went to Jumanji. After tromping around for some time, Amy needed to go home, so we took her back to her car at WinCo. We went into the store, and Corina, Matt and I started stalking some kids they recognized from school. We were pushing Matt around in a cart behind them, and hiding behind the cart. After we saw the kids buy some eggs, we started booking it to follow them. But alas, Corina was a little too fast, and pushed the shopping cart a la Matt full speed into one of the automatic doors. the door swung open, instead of sliding, and we ran to our car to escape.

We followed the kids for a while, when finally they threw an egg at my windshield. After that we lost them, but ended up getting chased by some cracked-out psychos fromt he WinCo parking lot. They were not happy.

Finally, to end the night, we took my van to a gas station to refuel and somewhat wash the egg off the windshield.

-Neil

Current Music: "The Tide" - Spill Canvas

Neil's Stringent Set of Prescriptions for the Proper Use of Sunglasses

lightningphyre — 2006-05-24T06:05:32-05:00

Many people make asses of themselves when wearing sunglasses. So, I have created the official list of rules on how to properly don sunglasses. Here it is,

Neil's Stringent Set of Prescriptions for the Proper Use of Sunglasses

1: Never wear sunglasses indoors; it's pretentious.

Qualification: Anticipate entering, do not anticipate exiting.*

2: Remove your sunglasses when sharing a meal; it's polite.

Qualification: The term "meal" is admittedly vague. Generally, if you are sitting down for the purpose of eating whatever it is you are eating, it is a meal. However, this does not exclude the possibility of meals standing up. A bag of chips, drinks, hors d'oeuvres... These things are not a meal. All in all, this stipulation requires use of judgment the most.

3: Sunglasses may be worn any time of the day.

4: Never wear sunglasses in the rain; it makes you look amazingly desperate.

5: Once you put a pair of sunglasses on, you are committed to that pair for the rest of the day.

Qualification: You are not required to wear the pair for the rest of the day, you are merely not allowed to wear a different pair.**

6: Never be the only one wearing a pair of sunglasses.

Qualification: There does not have to be another person in your company wearing sunglasses, there must merely be another person wearing sunglasses within the general vicinity, whether it be school, park, block party, etc.
Qualification: You may disregard this rule at night, night meaning "after sunset".

*By this I mean, take your sunglasses off before going indoors but do not put them back on until you are already outdoors. No exceptions.
**Regardless of whether you change your outfit, cut your hair or get a sex change, you must not change the pair of sunglasses you wear over the course of day. No exceptions.

There you have it. By following this set of guidelines, your the qaulity of your life will greatly soar and your happiness will be increased ten-fold.

-Neil

Adulthood

lightningphyre — 2006-10-18T03:10:26-05:00

I'm now eighteen, and adult.

Don't worry Mindsay, I haven't forsaken you.

My life has just been soooo busy.

Christmas Demands

lightningphyre — 2006-12-20T01:12:59-05:00

So I gave my parents my Christmas List recently. In the past, I've always written letters to Santa, seeing as I have a younger sister and seeing as my mom insists Santa is real, regardless of whether we are alone or not.

This year, however, I decided to go with something more... Visual. I liked the idea of it. My mom was sad that it wasn't addressed to Santa, but he just didn't fit into the design.

If you don't know me very well, you might think it's a really random and weird list. I mean, what senior in high school plays Pokemon? I do. And so do my friends. So lay off.

-Neil

Current Music: "Death Is the Road to Awe" - The Fountain (Music from the Motion Picture)

Doves

lightningphyre — 2006-12-23T07:12:20-05:00

Maybe I'm just too demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father, too cold
Maybe I'm just like my mother
She's never satisfied

Even doves have pride

Where's Taaka?

lightningphyre — 2007-01-02T01:01:03-05:00

"Where's Taaka?"

That's what I said at WinCo that got the middle aged woman in the Matrix jacket laughing. She was hilarious. I loved her. I loved her the whole minute I knew her.

Last night was fun. And freezing.

We had Freeze Fest '07 (pronounced Freeze Fest Oh Sev), the first Fest of '07.

-Neil

Current Music: "Let Go" - Frou Frou

Dumb Bitch

lightningphyre — 2007-03-13T06:03:27-05:00

I FUCKING WANT TO KILL A BITCH!

So, today I went to Target to see if they had any cheap sweatpants, which apparently they don't. Which made me sort of unhappy. But that was nothing compared to what happened when I was looking for a parking space.

Anyways, I was trolling the rows when I see the perfect spot. I pull around so I can get to it, and right as I'm about to pull into it, I see a woman standing in it, so I wait.

I should've run that whore over though because she proceeded to take a cart and hook it over the lip of the planter that was right next to the spot. It completely filled the parking spot so I was unable to park there. Understandably I began screaming at the top of my lungs.

I pulled away to find another parking spot and finally did. I was fuming because I hate when people are too lazy to return their carts, but I was obviously especially angry because it had directly affected me.

As I was walking into the store, I passed by the perfect spot, and almost had a heart attack when I saw that on the other side of her parked car was one of the little corrals for carts! So, not only was she so lazy that she couldn't return her cart, she was so lazy that she couldn't even walk her cart to the other side of her car!

I almost slashed that skank's tires.

Don't ever piss me off in a parking lot.

-Neil

Current Music: "Days Go By" - Dirty Vegas

Recognition:

lightningphyre — 2007-03-14T11:03:01-05:00

So I was googling my screenname "lightningphyre" yesterday, and as expected, most all the results were from Myspace or Mindsay.

Google, however, had a result for a website which I didn't recognize, so I clicked on the link (http://forum.wordreference.com/archive/index.php/t-167538.html). As far as I can tell, it's some sort of Spanish message board where people talk about translations of things. Go figure.

What is interesting, however, is that the page is a discussion of "pouffy" hair. One knowledgeable individual used two images, one of a mullet and one of a bouffant, to illustrate what "pouffy" hair is.

What is amazing is that they used my scratchboard of a bouffant!!!

I have no idea how they got this picture. Granted, I have it on my Photobucket, but I ran a search on Google Images, and after looking through about ten pages of results for "bouffant" I still had not seen my artwork.

I was just shocked and honored that not only had this random person seen my art, but that they used it to illustrate a point of their own, when there are photographs all over the internet.

I guess I'm basically Louvre status.

-Neil

Current Music: "Metro" - The Vincent Black Shadow

Starbucks Drink Calling

lightningphyre — 2007-03-26T12:03:42-05:00

This blog is most likely directed at you.

When you go to a fast food restaurant and you want the biggest size of fries they sell, do you ask for a "Large Fry" or a "Fry Large"? How about when it comes to sodas, "Large Soda" or "Soda Large"?

I'm sure the employee taking your order would be able to figure it out either way, but in English we tend to put adjectives before the nouns they modify. This isn't always so in Latin. In Latin, you can pretty much mash your words together in whatever order you want and even Mr. Witucki can't mark you down.

We don't speak Latin.

So why is it that when someone who would order a "Large Fry" at McDonalds visits Starbucks, they feel the need to throw all rules of convention out the window and order a "Mocha Venti"?

Now, as a barista at Starbucks, I hear orders mashed together in a vagillion different ways. There is, however, a proper way to say the components of a Starbucks drink. And, because it makes me & many other partners cringe to hear a drink "called" incorrectly, I will teach you this mystical language. (Oh yeah, it'll make you seem like you know what you're doing.)

Here's how it goes:

Frist off: Hot or cold? If hot, no need to say anything. If iced, please say so when ordering the drink, & not after the barista makes a hot one for you.

Now, do you want those shots to be caffeinated? If yes, no need to say anything. Otherwise, specify decaf, half-caf, or some other crazy fraction.

How many shots of espresso does your drink have? If you want the normal amount that comes in your drink size, you don't need to say anything. Otherwise, specify single, double, triple, quad, five shot, six shot, &c.

Now, of course, comes size. Short, Tall, Grande & Venti. These are the proper terms for the sizes at Starbucks. And making a joke about how we don't use the normal English terms is nothing new; it doesn't make you a ground-breaking comedian.

Are you adding any flavoring to your drink? Changing the normal amount of pumps of syrup that comes in your drink? If so, say so now. Number of pumps plus the type of syrup.

What kind of milk do you like? If whole, no need to say anything. Otherwise specify nonfat, lowfat, soy, or organic.

Now comes the fun part: Modifiers! Want your drink without whipped cream? Want a couple Splenda thrown in? How about extra foam? 140 degrees? At this point in time, please state anything special that you want done to your drink (that doesn't fit into other categories).

And finally, please tell us the type of drink itself.

Confusing? Not really. Here's an example that uses every aspect of the drink naming system:

Iced
Decaf
Quad
Grande
3 pump Almond
Nonfat
No whip
Mocha

See? Not that hard.

Oh, & here's something I would like you to remember at ALL TIMES! If a drink comes with whipped cream, such as a hot mocha, then the drink gets whipped cream no matter if it's hot or iced, or the type of milk it's made with. You could order an Iced Mocha made with Soy milk because you are lactose intolerant & it is still supposed to come with whipped cream unless otherwise specified.

Many times baristas will assume you don't want whipped cream, but technically they aren't making the drink right. I never assume. So if you don't want me putting whipped cream on your drink that is supposed to come with whipped cream, you had better let me know.

Also, please never be afriad to ask questions of your barista. We would much rather take the time to answer any questions you might have & clear up any confusion than to have to remake your drink because of a misunderstanding.

Thanks for reading!

-Neil

Current Music: "I See You Baby" - Groove Armada

P.S. What the fuck is a "kombucha wonder drink"? I got it as a suggested tag.

AMPERSAND

lightningphyre — 2007-04-14T03:04:01-05:00

So, here's a contest.

Design for me the best looking, most original, awesomest ampersand to ever hit paper.

What will you win?

Well, there is the possibility that if I like it enough, it might get tattooed on my body. Forever.

RULES! bitches:

Actually, you don't even have to design the ampersand. If you find an awesome one, you can just submit that one as your entry.

However, I've seen a lot of ampersands, especially on the internet, so chances are that if you use one I've seen, it won't win, otherwise I would have already chosen it as the best.

There is no deadline, the contest is just over when I find a winner.

Also, you can make as many submissions as you like.

ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE BLACK AND WHITE! There is a simplicity and a beauty to black and white that I feel is, sadly, lost on many people.

Abbreviations

lightningphyre — 2007-04-15T07:04:40-05:00

I have never been a fan of internet abbreviations.

Ok, I lie. From probably sixth grade to eighth grade I was all about the "LOL" and the "BRB."

Then I grew a few more brain cells.

Anyways, these days, I will occassionally use an "OMG." Very rarely, and only for effect, however.

But what never ceases to amaze me is how some people mutilate their text. The thing that irks me the most are abbreviations that are either the same length or -GASP- longer than what is being "abbreviated".

For example, today I saw someone abbreviate the word "anyone" and "n-e-one." Now, count the characters in both the words. The "abbreviation" is harder to type than the actual word.

WHY?!

-Neil

Current Music: "Demon Days" - Gorillaz

Thrills and Chills

lightningphyre — 2007-04-27T01:04:39-05:00

I was thrilled on Tuesday; I felt I could finally call myself an artist. Sure, I've been doing art for years, but for the first time ever, I was painting with oils and I got them on my clothes! This might sound bad, but I was ecstatic! I don't think anyone's truly an artist unless they've gotten oil paint on themselves.

Yesterday, my English class began reading Ragtime by Doctorow. At the end of chapter I, a character known as the little boy stares into the headlights of Houdini's car and says, "Warn the Duke."

Today, we had a test on the first chapter of the novel. A few of the questions were trick questions. For example, one question was, "What is the symbolic reasoning for the chain Houdini wears on his vest?' The answer is simply, "Houdini does not wear a chain; the Father does."

The second to last question on the test was, "Why does the Little Boy tell Houdini to warn the Duke?" Because I did not know the answer, and because my teacher told me that there were two more trick questions in addition to the chain question, I came up with some lame answer arguing that the Little Boy does not tell anything to Houdini, as it is in fact the little boy that speaks at the end of the chapter.

Just now, I searched this line of the novel on Google.com. I foudn these two posts on a message board:

"he's actaully talking about WWI; Archduke Ferdinand gets shot by a Serbian nationalist, sparking the egotrips that caused the war.
this is wierd, it is a premonition. makes the boy kinda more important."

"In the original version of Ragtime, before editing, Doctorow wrote a chapter in which Houdini tells the Archduke Ferdinand that his life is in danger, and then German officials throw Houdini in jail. Doctorow cut it out, though, because it posed a dead end for Houdini's character. That's also why, when he's suspended from the Times building, he thinks back to the "boy staring at his reflection in the headlights" as he wonders about Franz Ferdinand's death."

I don't know why, but reading those two answers to a question regarding the mysterious qoute sent shivers down my spine. I'm not sure if I want to read this book.

-Neil

Current Music: "Chop Suey" - System of a Down

Dream or No Dream

lightningphyre — 2007-05-09T07:05:30-05:00

This past Monday night was the 100^th episode of Deal or No Deal.

And no matter what you say, I love that show. I've heard people complain that it's boring, that the people on it are idiots, that it takes no skill, &c.

Well I personally find it extremely entertaining. It's got excitement, money and gorgeous models. And although I feel bad when someone misses out on a great deal of cash, I believe that I would most likely play the game to the end, purely because it would be fun.

But, it makes sense that people take risks and go for exorbitant sums of money. The show is basically like the American Dream. It's all about taking an opportunity (the first case you choose) and trying to turn it into as much as possible. Some people make it big (one contestant won 750,000 dollars while two have had the possibility of winning 1 million), some people lose practically everything (one contestant went home with 10 dollars), and most land somewhere in the middle.

The show is all about trying to make it. It's about calculated risk. It's about knowing when to stop, and when to risk it all. It's the green light at the end of the dock, it's riding through the tunnel in the truck bed, it's the black Ford Model T with a custom pantasote top.

It's the American Dream.

-Neil

Current Music: "Natural Blues" - Moby

P.S. The first person to recognise all three literary allusions gets five dollars or a Chipotle burrito. It's no million dollar case, but it's something.

"We're Being Pulled Over."

lightningphyre — 2007-08-19T04:08:29-05:00

In what was technically last night, I took two of my friends to a party and we had a really good time. My two friends were drinking, but I wasn't because I was the driver for the night. One of my friends
had to be home by midnight, so we ended up leaving the party at around 11:35.

At around 11:45 I was driving down Sunset and I was a little pissed because the car behind me seemed to be tail-gating me. As such, I was driving approximately 45 mph on a road which I believe is 40 in some parts and 35 in others. I came to a stop sign and although I didn't just drive through the stop sign, my stop was definitely hurried. After we got through the intersection, my rear view mirror filled up with blue and red.

"We're being pulled over."

I pulled over to the side of the road and immediately assessed the situation. Iad not been drinking at all and knew I could pass any sort of test. My friends weren't visibly intoxicated and they both immediately understood the gravity of the situation.

Over the cop car's loud-speaker came a male voice, "Pull into the parking lot on your left."

Doing so, I turned my car off and rolled down my window. As the cop slowly ambled up to my car, his partner also having gotten out of the squad car, memories of my two prior incidents with the cops ran through my mind. Think: getting a ticket for 70-in-a-40 and giving an interview after being in a three car collision.

"Are you doing okay tonight?" was the cop's first question.

"Yes."

"Can I see your license?"

"Oh. Yeah, sure."

"Having you been drinking tonight?"

"No."

"Nothing to drink?"

"Nothing."

"Where are you coming from?"

I turn to my passenger and ask, "From off Fair Oaks?"

"Okay, because you were swerving a little on Sunrise and you rolled that stop sign."

"Oh..."

"Is this your car?"

"Yes."

"Is it in your name?"

"I think it's in my dad's."

"What insurance company do you have?"

"I don't know," was my reply, as I reached for the insurance information in my glove box.

"You don't know? Do you pay your insurance?"

"No, my dad does."

"Ok," he said, as he handed me back my license, "be safe tonight."

Oh. Shit.

And I managed to get my friend home at exactly 12:00.

Neil's MindSay Blog

First Day

Swim Meet - Stingrays

NEW PENS!!!

Terminator 3

Swim Meet Results

Picture

New Pic

Insanity

Alicia

Village Photos

Championships

Me, Myself, And Him

NBXmas

Guess Who?

HEAR MY ROAR!!!

Stupid Tests

MY QUIZ!!!

HYPOCRACY!

Hermitage

My Disorder

YAY!

Happiness

Windows

The Most Accurate Quiz EVER!!!

Hermitage 2

Water Polo

DeadAIM AGAIN!!!

Polo Part 2, And Other Things

Orientation and Partying

Jesuit

Pictures

New Layout

Lack of Smarts

Layout Part 2

Poll for Blog

Layout and NBXMAS

HELP!!!

Stuff

Pics and Pages

National Ice Cream Appreciation Awareness Day (NICAAD)

School Spirit!!! Right...

Everything

Two More Things

Halloween

Wow

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Expenditures

Awakening

Soundtrack of My Life

Faces...

Past Four Days

Braces, BESTNESS, and Vocabulary

Memories and the INVADER

Stress and the Various Systems

I AM A GOD!!!

Tests, Presents and Metal

More Finals and Publicity

This is Quite Possibly the Most Interesting Title Ever::To whom it may concern:

Holiday Season

Christmas

A Test

Gluttony

My Mommy Said Not To Talk To Strangers (lame attempt at interesting subject)

The Wrathful God: the Destroyer; the Demon

|Q|U|I|Z|Z|E|S| My Anti-Drug

My Head Hurts

Surv Me

IT IS THE LANGUAGE OF WRATH AND IT SHALL BE SPOKEN!

I Hope You Never Live Like Jack And Sally

I Lie A Lot

Past Coupla Days

It's Like My Sister's 'Cookies'

Edict # 2

(Re)Living the Dream

Dress Atire

Everything's Covered in Chlorine

A Bunch o' Crap

Poll

Even On the Weekend School Tortures Me

|Q|U|I|Z|Z|E|S|
My Anti-Drug