I got a facebook account. I don't like it much so far.

So I went to the highschool boy's tournament basketball game. They won. By one. We should have won easily. Sam hurt his leg/knee. But he's pretty much fine. I was gonna put a poem TJ and I made today. But I don't have enough time; I gotta go get ready for bead and whatnot. Those TMBG ringtones are cool. We did the trial today, but we didn't tape it. Something wasn't working right with the microphones. The jury's gonna deliberate tomorrow. And we're doing it again to tape next week Monday. Mr. Spickler got this huge gross black wig from TJ that he wore. He looks like one of the guys from Twisted Sister. Or...someone else. It's funny. When he was on the witness stand, every time I looked at him I started laughing. I couldn't stop. Aaand.. I really need to watch stuff from homestarrunner.com. I haven't been on there in at least a month. Most likely two.

We did our last practice thing for the trial, which is tomorrow. If Kristin's not there, Mr. Spickler is going to play her character, a truck stop waitress, and wear an Anderson Varejao wig. It's going to be so fun. Today went really fast; I didn't do much work in any class really. Worked on my Powerpoint for my science fair project- it's due Thursday. But I don't have Powerpoint on my computer, so I can only work at school. Which is not too cool. I need to take pictures of my experiment to put on there, but I have not digital camera. And I need a bunch of ball bearings. I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner for some strange reason.

I drew this in like 10/15 minutes, ok? XD I'm going to go watch The Office which I did not get to see last night and instead taped it from our extremely-horrible-reception-getting-not-cable-or-satellite-having tv. At least it taped this time. I'm reading The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness. Got it from the library after school today. I'm on page 53. It's more exciting than I thought. Wired is a really cool magazine that I will most likely be suscribing to the next time my school does their magazine fundraiser. It's like they took all the stuff that interests me and shoved it together. Stupid science. Stupid science fair. Stupid science fair project. Stupid science fair project research. Stupid science fair project research report. Stupid science fair project research report note cards. It's infernal documentaion.

So... It's Saturday.

BOOK REPORT'D!

Today was fun. Hardly did anything that involved actual school work, and I ate a bunch of candy type stuff. Emily gave everyone in the class half pound chocolate bars! Whee. MUCH OBLIGED, JEEVES “I've seldom had a sharper attack of euphoria. I feel full to the brim of Vitamin B. Mind you, I don't know how long it will last. Too often it is when one feels fizziest that the storm clouds begin doing their stuff,” Bertie asserts at the beginning of P.G. Wodehouse’s Much Obliged, Jeeves. This classic Wodehouse book is one of many chronicling the escapades of Bertie Wooster and his valet, Jeeves, written towards the end his career. The story takes place in timeless, idealized England before World War Two. I enjoyed reading this book. In my opinion, however, it was not quite as witty and sharp as the other Wodehouse short stories and novels I’ve read. The story starts with Bertie in bed, happy, eating breakfast. He receives a telephone call from his aunt Dahlia asking him if he’d come down to Brinkley Court; his friend Ginger Winship is running in the House of Commons by-election and wants Bertie to come to canvass on his behalf. Bertie happily agrees after being reassured that he won’t be required to kiss any babies. He runs into Ginger while eating lunch and learns that it is his fiancé who wants him to run, and that she is none other than the strict Florence Craye, who Bertie was himself engaged to. Ginger loves her dearly, but Florence is so controlling and demanding that, Ginger believes, if he loses the election, their engagement would be over. Upon arriving at Brinkley, Bertie encounters one of his old valets, Bingley, who Bertie detests, and with good reason - once, drunk, he had burned down the cottage Bertie was staying in and threatened to shoot him, mistaking him as a burglar. Bertie now learns that Bingley has stolen the Club Book, which belongs to the Junior Ganymede, a club for valets and butlers, which contains personal and often times embarrassing information about their employers for other members to review and consider prior to taking a job with one of them. He threatens to sell the entry on Ginger’s past escapades to the newspapers, thus ensuring his loss of the election. Through some ingenious scheming, Jeeves devises a plan to steal the book back, which he promptly carries out. When Bertie informs Ginger that the book is safe, he, surprisingly, is not happy. He tells Bertie that he has realized that he does not want to marry Florence; he has fallen in love with his secretary Magnolia. At the candidate debate, after his opponent has finished speaking, Ginger gets up to speak and, at the suggestion of Jeeves, states that he has sided with his opponent and that everyone should vote for her. This, of course, outrages Florence, and she promptly ends their engagement, much to the delight of Ginger. He proposes to Magnolia, and Bertie, his duties successfully carried out with much help from Jeeves, is elated to hear that Jeeves has also destroyed the pages in the Junior Ganymede Club Book which had previously been a constant threat to Bertie’s reputation. After all, compared to the other employers’ paragraph or two entries, his was by far the largest - nineteen pages long. One of the things I love about Wodehouse’s Jeeves books is the point of view from which they are told. Bertie’s interesting and unique way of describing the events of his life are endlessly entertaining. He has a unique way of stating the mundane. “I halted. There was a song I used to sing in my bath at one time, the refrain or burthen of which began with the words 'I stopped and I looked and I listened', and this was what I did now, except for the looking.” He goes out of his way to describe in detail things that, in a normal story, would only be briefly mentioned. When his friend Madeline gets a gnat in her eye, Bertie stops the narration to expound upon the right and wrong ways of taking things out of peoples’ eyes. “I remember going into the technique of operations of this kind with Gussie Fink-Nottle at Totleigh when he had removed a fly from the eye of Stephanie Byng, now the Reverend Mrs. Stinker Pinker, and we were in agreement that success could be achieved only by placing a hand under the patient's chin in order to steady the head. Omit this preliminary and your efforts are bootless. My first move, accordingly, was to do so.” The narration, in my opinion, is one of the things that makes this and other Wodehouse books so enthralling. One thing, however, that I thought was slightly annoying was that, in this book in particular, some phrases or jokes are repeated a little too frequently. Seven times, after quoting or alluding to something from the Bible, Bertie boisterously mentions how he won the Scripture Knowledge Prize when he was in school. “I have often thought that the deaf adder I read about when I won my Scripture Knowledge prize would have got the message right enough if the aged relative had been one of the charmers.” “I couldn't have become stiffer if I had been Lot's wife, whose painful story I had had to read up when I won that Scripture Knowledge prize.” Jeeves also frequently quotes famous authors or poets, and Bertie guesses at the origin of the quote, almost always being wrong. “’Shakespeare?’ ‘Burke, sir.’” or “’Shakespeare?’ ‘No, sir. The American author Oliver Wendell Holmes.’” Again, Bertie asks, “‘Shakespeare?’ ‘Yes sir, his Merchant of Venice.’ I left him then, pleased at having got one right for a change…” This book was one of P.G. Wodehouse’s last, and I think that that somewhat accounts for the not-as-sharp wit and humor that is so predominant and wonderful in his earlier works. Another thing that I noticed is that some of the minor characters are sort of distant and not very well described or deeply involved in the plot. Florence only is there to scold and order Ginger around. L. P. Runkle only serves as a means to money for Tuppy Glossop’s engagement. Tuppy is also hardly mentioned at all in the story and is never even actually around; his money problems only exist to exasperate Bertie. It seems as if some storylines were added simply to put Bertie even more, as he would say “in the soup”, and to make the plot appear more complicated and interesting, even though they have little to do with what actually happens in the story. Even Jeeves himself only seems to act as Bertie’s quote checker and hardly enters into the plot at all other than to steal the book from Bingley and, at the end of the book, to get Bertie out of his troubles with one big, masterfully crafted plan. One of the themes that runs through many Wodehouse stories, including this one, is the idea of engagements. They are seen as flippant things that are often and quickly broken off and started up again. Very briefly, until she discovers his criminal behaviors, Bertie becomes engaged to Madeline. He also refers to the fact that he too was once engaged to Florence. About it he says, “It didn't last long, because she gave me the heave-ho and got betrothed to a fellow called Gorringe who wrote vers libre, but while it lasted I felt like one of those Ethiopian slaves Cleopatra used to push around, and I chafed more than somewhat.” Marriage, to Bertie, is seen as something that would tie him down and lead only to misery. His aunt Dahlia says, “‘I've lost count of the number of times you've been definitely headed for the altar with apparently no hope of evading the firing squad, and every time something has happened which enabled you to wriggle out of it. It's uncanny.’” Engagement should be looked upon as a final thing, not something that can easily be blown off and then restarted again. Another kind of theme I noticed in the book is that of Bertie getting dragged into other people’s problems. He is asked to help canvass for Ginger’s election, to help get money from L. P. Runkle for his friend Tuppy, and to keep a silver dish hidden that his aunt Dahila has stolen. Bertie, at first, never really wants to help, but always does because he is a Wooster and chivalry comes natural to them. Most of the trouble he gets pulled into isn’t really even his problems, but he can’t help but do everything that is asked of him by anyone; he is a people pleaser. The book seems to imply that Bertie wouldn’t have any problems if he just kept out of other peoples’ affairs, and that it would be smarter of him to do so. We are supposed to be kind to others, and, if we can, assist them in their times of trouble. In conclusion, although this book does not meet the Wodehouse standard of his earlier works, I’d still recommend it to other people to read; it’s extremely entertaining. The lessons in it shouldn’t be taken seriously; I don’t think they were written to be. This book is amusing and not supposed to be taken seriously. Its comedic narration is delightful to read, and I think that anyone who does will be surprised at how funny Bertie’s disastrous life and downfalls can be, until he is saved by Jeeves’ massive brain at the very last minute. As Bertie instructs him, “Keep eating lots of fish.” In Bertie’s mind, this must be the source of his brain power. THE END.

Part V

My backyard. About 15 minutes ago. That's my sister with the red shorts. Snow's deep in some spots, but you can see the grass in others. Snow dunes are pretty. Our class was supposed to start our bake sale today. My mom made cookies. Oh well. I guess I can eat some of them then. I'm gonna go html-ize my myspace. I like html. I wanna learn how to do more stuff with it.

GRAPH!!1one

Of House and his vicodin. So far.

Part IV

No school again. A big ol' storm's a-brewin'. Which, I hope, will mean no school tomorrow too. I didn't go yesterday either; was sick. AND THEY DID THE SCARLET LETTER TRIAL WITHOUT ME! I'm so happy. Um....I made a pretty new background with Mr. Laurie in it yesterday. I like it very much. I'll put it up on my DeviantArt whatchamacallitthingymadodad. Which brings me to my next point...which is that House is on tonight. Whistling in the dark. *thud* Whistling in the dark. *thud* New podcast is very cool. I wish the Sensurround would have been the S-E-X-X-Y version. Because I want that version. I've only heard it on a video game montage on youtube. I like gum. I did a bunch of Sudokus today. They're not as hard as I thought they were. Albeit, they're all the easiest level. I'm confused about what I did wrong on one, though. Fanpop.com is a very neat site. Can watch episodes and clips of a ton of tv shows. I wonder how many flavors of ice cream there are in the whole world...

Hm..

On google, I just searched "flansburgh linnell hugh laurie", and my myspace and livejournal are the first and second that come up. And "john conant flansburgh john sidney linnell" has my myspace first. Weird. That's kind of cool, I guess. Went to the junior high guy's tournament games in Celeryville today. Right next to Cabbagetown. Whatever. It was an hour and some minutes away. They won their first game by three points; it was really close. Caleb, who's one of their strongest/best players, took a charge in the first game and got hurt. Pretty badly. Maybe bruised or broke a rib and hurt his shoulder. He was still going to play in the next game, which was the regional championship, but he ended up not because he was hurt too badly. They team they played against had two giant people on it. Both were at least a few inches taller than Zach, who is our tallest player. Those two tall guys stayed in the whole first three quarters, which to me seemed very cruel and unsportsmanlike, especially when they kept passing it back and forth over very-short-Jon's head. We lost 12 or something there about to 44. But they did really well. And then they got their trophy and then we ate cake and then we went to Burger King and then we dropped Kellee off and then we went home. Pastor Dave's a very good coach. I have a book report that is more of a book review due Friday. On a "classic". Of which category Jeeves and the Tie that Binds apparently falls into. Miss Reeves's seen Jeeves and Wooster, and I did a report on P.G. Wodehouse, and I think she thinks this book is considerably older than what it really is. It's from 1971. Shhh. Don't tell. I got The Medical Science of House, M.D. the other day, and I'm reading that as well. It's pretty interesting. That is all.

It's FAAAAAT HAPLERT!

My sister's JH basketball team actually won a game. Their first one all year. It was 4-4 at halftime. They were down by two with 4.5 seconds left. Someone inbounded the ball to Kari who turned and made a three pointer. Very awesome. We decided what everyone's names are in the trial. I'm Pam Halpert. Emily is Shelly Dishes. Because TJ and Em and Josh and I couldn't stop laughing for forever after Josh first said it. One of the dead truck drivers is Tai Wan Dong Chow. In Bible we had to either write a poem or compose/perform a song or draw a picture or write a story about a proverb from Proverbs. I picked Proverbs 14:5 and did a comic in which a bespectacled man asks his friend John if he'd seen his missing coffee, ending in a bespectacled man giving bystander Marty his guitar for ratting out John, saying that he saw him drink it.

NO SCHOOL! Part III

Yep. Too cold still. This really is great. I made pancakes today. And put grape jelly and peanut butter on them. Very good. So cool. Dwight + Ok Go. Flansburgh's Four-Eyes About to Rock, I Salute You is very interesting. I was looking for it too a while ago but couldn't find it anywhere. On Friday, after school, I went with Sara and Heather to Taco Bell and then to CCS for the basketball games. Four of them, which was cool. I kept stats for the junior high girls game; Sara did the scorebook. We lost. After that, we ate our foodz, cause there wasn't enough time before. Then I sat by Sam and he asked me if I could tape his game later. So I did. The junior high boys won. And the varsity girls lost. I asked Mandy to come sit by me because I was by myself on the home side because that's the only outlet Sam could find. Their bleachers were weird. They were really high, but they didn't have any railings on the sides. Mandy couldn't climb up them, and she kept trying for about 10 minutes; she finally gave up and went to sit down where she was before. After half time, if our team has the ball to start with, the guys sometimes run this awesome play called "Stupid" in which all the guys set up on the wrong end of the court; they don't switch sides. And the other team usually sets up their defense down there too. So when Jeremy or Steve or Brandon or whoever gets the ball to pass it in, Sam takes off running down the court to the other end and dunks it. He did that at homecoming this year and it was so cool. The reaction of the other team is always funny. They didn't do that on Friday. So. The varsity guys won 70-something to 20-something. And then I waited till Sam came outta the locker room so I could give him his camera. By now it was maybe 9 or 9:30. My mom went to pick up my cousin from her house to take her to the overnight thing. It was really fun. I didn't actually do much. There were over 400 junior high/high school people there. They had volleyball and basketball tournaments, massive 30-people-to-a-side dodgeball games, laser tag, racquet ball, ping pong, video games, movies, and a bunch of other stuffs. At one point, probably at 3 in the morning or something, in between basketball games, TJ goes "Hey Val." And starts doing Michael's stretches and warmups from the basketball episode of The Office. I told him to do Stanley. It was really funny. And later me and him and Sam and Chrissy and Pastor Dave were sitting at a table in the lobby lounge thing. There was popcorn lying on the table and TJ and I started to say what each kernel looked like. And then he pretended they were spaceships with bad pilots that crashed into the table. Pastor Dave said that he smelled really bad and that he thought he should rub the popcorn on himself. He said that there was this big bag of popcorn that he had in the youth room at church that was really old but still tasted the same for three months. We left there at 7 in the morning and went back to the school. The pancake breakfast was that morning, and my sister and my mom and I stayed to help, because she's on the PTA. I made a bunch of pancakes. And then I went home and slept from 9:30 to 1:30. And then we went back to the school again to watch the junior high boy's tournament game. It was against the same team they'd beaten the day before. Our team played pretty bad, but we still won, but it was only by two or four points, I think. This entry is really, really long. And then we went home. Ok, I'm done now.

NO SCHOOL! (Reprise)

Yep. No school again. It's too cold. Like 5 degrees right now. There're over 600 schools closed around here. At least, that's what the newspeople said. Was already canceled since 5 or 6 last night, which is very good. Most likely no school tomorrow either. I really hope so. Today was supposed to be out Scarlet Letter mock retrial. It's really dumb. It could be awesome, but Miss Reeves doesn't want any humor or laughing whatsoever. I taped last year's when the now-seniors did it. It was so boring. And I am a townsperson. We're gonna make Miss Reeves so dang mad when we do it, because my class cannot do anything very seriously. We wanted to make the trial a musical. Or in the style of The Office. TJ and I decided that John Smith is the Dwight of Jamestown. And Pocahontas is Angela. We're doing a trial in government too. To learn how the judicial system works. We get to make up the crime ourselves, and so far, it's insanely complicated. Mr. Spickler's getting so excited and making the plot more and more complex. A summary (or what I have written down so I wouldn't get confused): Executive secretary worked for Enron. She lost job, money, life savings. Started working as waitress at truck stop. Nice car repossessed because couldn't afford payments. Car truck driver boyfriend dumped her at same time. Emotionally distressed. In deserted parking lot of truck stop. 3 am. Is on break. Only boyfriend with truck with cars to be sold on it there. She shoots him with poison dart. He dies. Takes car from car truck. Leaves ex-boyfriend in driver's seat. Been in contact with Canadian drug lord who is secret boyfriend. She pretends to be police and pulls car truck drivers over for speeding, shoots them with poison dart, puts them in her "cop" car, steals car truck. Takes car truck to drug lord boyfriend to use to smuggle drugs in. And that's not all of it; we're not done. I shall tell about my cool weekend sometime later. Perhaps tomorrow. If there's no school.

Sleep

I didn't get any sleep for over 27 hours, from 6 AM yesterday to 9-something AM today. And then I slept until 1 in the afternoon. Went to church/youth group/Hebron activity thing at the Oberlin Rec Center from 10 last night until 7 in the morning. It was fun. And I'll say more about that later probably. And then I made pancakes.