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Thanksgiving weekend was/has been insane. Even if school isn’t in session I can always count on having some type of homework. Most likely being assigned by my bi-polar English teacher (well maybe it just seems that way, but she’s kewl overall). Arg…I spent so much of my vaca time doing notes and journalling.

I am in the serious melt-down mode because I don’t have a PDA to jot down quotes that I hear or whatever throughout the day. I’ve missed easily a dozen great sayings because I simply forget them. And also, I never remember Christmas ideas because my parents and grandparents are begging me to come up with some ideas for gifts. But because I don’t have a PDA to write an idea down when I think about it or see it, I lose track of it and it is eternally lost in a whirlpool of confusion, known as my brain. So I need my PDA. Well, maybe it’s just a want.

I’ll be finally going all digital with my dj-ing now. My conversion of most of my cds to mp3s is just about done. This means much convenience (hopefully…I guess) is in the future.

Ray’s birthday party was tonight (Happy B-Day Ray!). I dj-ed a little, but mostly it was just everyone talking loudly and doing whatever. The John and John band thing played for a while too which was fun. I’m so worn out from this party thing. In four weeks, I’ve been to four birthday parties. And this trend will probably continue into five weeks because next Friday is Danielle’s party. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

My Archives page has finall reached maximum capacity, meaning about six months worth of blogging. I’ll just create another one for my next entry.

So, after I get all those things currently on my mind out of the way, let’s reminisce: Thanksgiving, a time for each person to honestly show (not tell) their gratitude for whatever it may be. I confess I wasn’t all perfect during my Thanksgiving but I’m still learning and want to mature continually. So let’s just get down to the basics here: What am I thankful for? The Love and Mercy and continual Faithfulness of the One True God. A family who puts up with my unwillingness, who shows compassion in my rebuttal. Friends who are there. Friends who laugh with me. Friends who can be serious with me. Friends who rebuke me right when I desperately need it. Friends who won’t let me say stupid things about my situations or myself. Friends who share my same factor of criticism and who can honestly be just as "delightfully anal" as me. Friends in general. The blessings of health and life. Blessings. And I’m thankful.

Now after all that glittering generality, here are some specifics. Jeremiah: the single most influential person in my life (not counting the eternal change in me through Jesus), who has taught me the importance of consistency and perseverance. Friendship is a genuine thing, and this one is truly original.

Matt Hogan, Mark Lamb, and Cliff Jordan: the mentors in my life. Each contains his own perspective and insight, each so valuable in my guiding to further get closer to God. My gratefulness to their willingness to serve is sincere. The friends of mine from school, not mentioning names because I fear forgetting someone: daily companionship is awesome. One of my greatest regrets about leaving for college is that my relationships with these incredible people may grow heavily restricted and torn; I pray that the differences we make in each others’ lives will never cease as distance gets in the way.

God: need I say more?

I am not nearly thankful enough.

Tim’s party went just fine. Great music, good dancing, and lots of pool games. Tons o’ fun.

This week contains much craziness and insanity as a short school week ends and an annual Thanksgiving trip to MD begins.

Since the 6-weeks is ending, most teachers are giving either big tests or big quizzes. I got both ends of the spectrum today and suffered through it all. College English was the worst and I won’t even give the reasons why because it’s just stupid.

Tomorrow looks to be exciting. With a 2-hour early dismissal and a movie after THP, it seems my last Wednesday before Thanksgiving will be thorough. But let’s not forget the loads of homework I have to complete by next Monday and all the other piddly things that will consume me.

Tonight was the National Honor Society Induction Ceremony. Approximately 95 juniors were inducted this year. I had the honor of inducting Tanya Daniszewski, Tim Davidson, and Alex Davis. I also completely screwed up my personal introduction. I ended up saying something like "next fall I hope to plan to attend…" Oh well.

I’m continually putting off looking for scholarships, which is just stupid. Actually I’d consider it more of forgetfulness than ignorance. Tech offers several Engineering scholarships but because I am a white male I doubt I’ll get a cent from anyone.

Life is what you make of it. Everyone should know this. Any person’s situation is only what you perceive it as and accept it as. People need to live by this. Illness is any form is 90% psychological; you can’t be considered "disabled" until you give into your hindrance. Life is what you make of it. Make it a good thing.

My student conducting experience was good. I made sure "Bugler’s Holiday" went almost as fast as I’d like it. I quickly realized how difficult it is to keep an 80+ member symphonic band in the same tempo at such a fast rate especially when you have no conducting experience and you just kind of wave the baton to and fro. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Last night I saw TripleX with some THP folk. This is the most testostorone-induced movie I’ve ever witnessed. Not only is Vin Diesel a horrible actor but so much of the movie was either over-cooked or just plain spoiled. The action was, unfortunately, completely non-stop. But if you like that kind of stuff then go for it. 3.3 out of 10.

Tonight is Tim’s B-Day party which I am now dj-ing. So my evening is hopefully filled. Yet I am so worn out from a lack of sleep that I’m not sure if I will be able to stay awake. I haven’t slept in on a Saturday morning in almost 5 months. It’s a horrible feeling depriving yourself of natural fuel.

And school continues to get harder…This may become a trend.

I will get to student conduct tomorrow and Friday in Advanced Symphonic Band because Mr. Webb will be out for his little annual band director’s vaca. I’ll be directing on "Bugler’s Holiday". Oh what joy.

Thanks to Burning Bush for their efforts to allow Lynchburgian teens something to do. Since "Spanky’s" has now reopened their prime location is available once again and they are pouring in the artists from Stavesacre and Squad-Five-0 to Denison Mars and The K Word. Very nice.

This weekend I might actually be attending another birthday party. Apparently Tim is celebrating, so maybe I’ll be over there for a while. Also, in total ignorance and in lack of information Mark celebrated his birthday without my knowing. So Happy Birthday Mark, and…Tim, well you can have a nice day too.

It seems that everytime I try to start blogging regularly, I get more busy or lazy in the evenings and blog less (most likely busy-ness instead of lazy-ness). Oh well, maybe I get that going strong once again.

We had to replace my bed because it was, in summary, falling apart. So we got out another bed we had up in the attic and now I am officially almost a foot higher off the ground. It’s the strangest feeling to step out of bed and almost fall to the floor. I have a feeling my "loft experience" in college will awaken me to some new styles of waking up.

For the world to know: don’t judge me when you yourself blatantly ignore your imperfections that you have been graced by God with. I’m not perfect, and so aren’t you. And don’t tell me I’ve done something wrong when you have a closet full of skeletons and oftentimes living bodies.

And further reason to now avoid the Forest area: Bedford County officials (School Board, Supervisors, and Superintendent) have recommended that some of JF’s students be relocated to Liberty High School since they don’t have the money to renovate even though thousands of dollars of structural and medical research have unanimously told them to build a new JF. Sounds like a perfect time for a walk-out…and stay-out.

Maybe it hasn’t been that crazy. This week has taught me a lot. It’s taken me on a "wild ride" that I refused to relent to. My stubbornness further broke me down and finally made me collapse today (thanks God!). This week has been slow and steady, but that’s how we win the race.

Friday. Always our hope. Good times. I spent the evening at Stacy’s house with many friends. B-Day party!! Happy Birthday Stacy!!! The party was just fabulous and the dancing was wild. The "costumes" (if you can even call them that) were funny. I personally thought Tim’s interpretation of a…well…a poorly clothed human being was great.

Saturday I woke up "bright and early" to get to work for my five hours. That was the first time I’ve seen my alarm clock with such little numbers on it. Work went by fast.

Then I went over to the memorial service for Dr. Murphy who passed away this past Sunday. It was a calm and pleasant memoriam that filled the church with students and teachers alike. He was certainly an inspiring person; one of those people you are blessed to know.

I was inspired from some of my thinking at work, so after the memorial I went over to THP quickly and worked my inspiration out into a genius display of lighting power.

I then spent the evening with "some nerds who keep following me around" aka Tabitha and Allison (I was forced to say that after an IM conversation with Tabitha herself). We saw The Four Feathers. Wow, that was good. My initial reaction was supremely phenominal but as I started thinking about the movie and it’s interwoven parts my rating for it began to drastically drop. This is a movie that only some people will like. Reasoning: it has a few confusing parts in it that for some would just not make sense and therefore they would get lost in a self-delirium of nonsense (to them). But for those super-highly-intelligence-ified people like me, well I got the movie completely. But…Honestly, it did have some strange structure at times, more so the ending, and the character development wasn’t as deep as it needed to be to make this film an ultimate success. Still, worth your time; maybe even worth the 16$-ish for the DVD (when it comes out). Before I say any more nonsense here’s the "gist" of my movie reaction: I much enjoyed it and personally would most likely get the DVD (which means a lot for a "cheap" guy like me). 7.5 out of 10.

This week is one day from finishing out. And yet even now I can give it the title "Most Craziest Week Ever." Things have been turned upside down and my expectations were all but destroyed. Maybe it’s for the better; you decide.

Of course, having already blogged this Tuesday (check Archives), school has been dramatic. Coping with the loss of another student is never a frivilous thing, this one especially. I’m always relieved by our faculty’s effort to slow things down when tragedies like this occur to allow students some time to back off from work and focus on counsel. I consider this a blessing.

I finally did my College English presentation this past Wednesday. After 8 hours of preparation and in-depth study, not to mention the complete stress and nervousness, Mrs. Boswell-Beer said mine was "excellent." She also said I covered the material incredibly well for the difficulty of my chapter. My timing was great too. Hopefully a certain few will get me back their homework assignment so I can grade them and turn them in. Oh well.

Also on Wednesday, Mr. Steve Newman was our guest speaker in AP Government. For those of you non-my-district people, Mr. Newman is our State Senator for this area of Virginia. He is just a great speaker. He thoroughly and clearly described our state government and its operation. He also did a quick thing near the end of class using some students as office holders. I was the lieutenant governor. Apparently it’s not a flashy job because I was constantly told I was "not relevant" and just a basically pointless governing figure. I wonder if I get a Porsche…

I went over to BestBuy Wednesday evening. Purchased Coyote Ugly and Star Wars Episode II. Both were on sale, meaning both were viable excuses for me to get a DVD. Ironically enough I ran into Mr. Newman at BestBuy. He remembered me as the "lieutenant governor."

Tomorrow is Friday and then the weekend. I’m not sure if I even want to make plans ever again in my life in fear of this type of craziness taking reign consequently. Oh well…