Me: The Story

The Road to... What?

2006-05-16T20:45:00.000-05:00

Monday: School is just the same. I really can't express how much school would suck without the benifit of track. I hang out with track people. I date track people. I am going to have to fill a void when track is over.
Track: 400m then a quick 200m. We did that twice. Lots of stretching and strides. Everyone that is going to Regions is really anxious. We take out our frustrations on the hackey sack. I love hacky sack. I need to get one somewhere, but I haven't found one anywhere. We got the word on the events we are running. Our region sucks in distance. We have Matt ranked at number 2 in the mile and 3 in the two mile. Steph is ranked 3 in the 800. Top 4 people go to states. I am ranked 8th in the two mile. I need to drop 30 seconds to make states. Good news though, I am running the mile! I have a person that is as good as I am in the two mile, and he runs a 5:18 mile. He also runs a slower 800m than I do. If I have enough time to rest, I actually have a chance at states there. He is ranked 6th. If I run a 5 minute mile, I'm in states. Thats 4 seventy second laps. I run a 2:25 800m. Hope I can hold the pace.

Tuesday: School is boring. Science is annoying. I just keep me head down and try to do everything she assigns. I really have nothing else to do in the class. I just do the work, and work on some friend gathering expiditions. You make friends fast when you have the answers to almost everything in the class execpt the meaning of life itself.
Track: A long 30 minute run. I enjoy these runs. I enjoy the workouts too, but I just don't enjoy them the same, you know? We did stretches, did a brutal core workout (If good abs weren't sexy...), and did more stretches. I like stretching. Its a type of controlled pain. I have made a realization. I, to an extent, enjoy pain as long as I have control over the pain. Its interesting. Some type of masochist stuff. Kinda scary.

We have a guest over, and I have to get off now.

May your pain be enjoyable,
Ben

Friday, Saturday, and Someday

2006-05-13T20:36:00.000-05:00

Friday: No school. Woke up at 12. Ate food. Ate more food. Played DDR. Watched my brother get a new bunny. Really cute. I have my Distance Dinner tonight. Most of the distance people are their except Matt. I had the Fried Shrimp Trio. Really tasty. Went to Barns and Noble. Bought another Zits book. Went home, went to sleep.

Saturday: Got up at 8:15 and went to track practice. Warm up, stretching, 4 200ms, 15 minutes of free running, and then 2 more 200m strides. After all of that, I went back to stretching. Felt really good. Went home, the pool guys were working on our pool. It is an evil green until they get everthing worked out. Went inside, and then soon came out to help dad take off the water pump on the car. Came inside, had lunch, and then started watching a movie from Netflix. Went to town with dad, and got car parts. We also got food for a mothersday picnic, and I bought a one pound bag of sunflower seeds. Got home, watched more movie, and then went to play with my brothers bunny in the school house. Really, really, really cool. He is short furred and uber soft. He seems to like me alot. I had supper, and then helped dad with the pool a bit more. I went inside and started on the 8 page paper draft that I have to turn in monday. Need to finish that tomorrow. Now I am going to eat something and go to bed.

May you never wish to be a fish,

Ben

Wednesday and Thursday

2006-05-12T16:05:00.000-05:00

Wednesday: School is really boring. Nothing really exciting. In PE I played soccer with the really good kids, and scored a goal. I also turned one of my toes completely black and blue. Not good, I have to run on that.
Track: We get on the bus, and it is actually comfy this time. There used to be 60 people on the bus, but only 30 or so are going to counties. I am running the 4 x 800 and the 2 mile. It is really hot. The 4 x 800 is one of the first events so we (Mike, Scott, and Zac), start warming up. I am feeling pretty good. We arn't expecting to place, we have gotten demolished by seniors before. I am the lead runner. I start off, and I am in last, I run a 2:25 (PR!), Scott runs a 2:30, Mike runs the same and we are still in last. Zac starts running, and on the last lap, with 100m to go, we pass someone. The passed team encouraged their teammate ('COMEON! DONT LET THE LITTLE TURD PASS YOU!!!!!), but to no avail. We are the Mustangs. Second to last. We all cool down. I have the 2 mile coming up, and I start warming up. Matt and Brendan are running the two mile with me. The two mile starts, and I settle in the bottom 1/4. I don't feel really good, and end up running a 11:35, a couple seconds behind Brendan. I have beaten him before, and his PR is still higher than mine. Regionals. I am going to run a 11:15 if it is the last thing I do. After the day is done, we get on the events and go back to the school. Dad picks me up, I eat supper, do my history homework, and go to bed.

Thurday: I do my math homework just before school starts. School is just same old school. No evil teacher in science today. We had a totallly clueless sub. This some students took advantage of. One student was leaning back in his chair, headphones on, eating his lunch. Really funny.
Track: I am not running anything, but I go anyway. It is raining hard. Everyone runs in the rain and is drenched. They delay the start of the running for thirty minutes then start it up. Everyone runs, we pack up, dry up, and head back to the school. Dad picks me up and my day is done.

I have to get ready to go to town, we have a distance dinner. May your legs always be fresh,

Ben

Monday and Tuesday

2006-05-09T20:42:00.000-05:00

School: Monday: Boring. Weight lifting in PE. Nothing really interesting.
Track: Did some long runs, strides, and stretches. Nothing much. Have Counties on Wednesday!

School: I have math homework, but I am going to do it before school tomorrow. Health was boring. History was interesting. I am the judge, and I have done nothing. Kinda, cool, but rather boring. Science is evil. That class... Man, that teacher is so doomed. Lunch: Dropped my gatorade. So far, I have bought 2 gatoades in the last 2 days, and have only drunk 3/4 of them total. Rather infuriating. English: Finished MacBeth. Yay. French: Fashon show tomorrow. I am just wearing clothes. They should be happy about that too.

Track: Handoffs. After the handoffs we ran a 400m all out. I, and most of the team, ran 66. He wants us to run a 2:12 in the 4 x800m at Counties tomorrow.. My record in 2:27. Man, I would love to run a 2:12, but 15 seconds is alot to drop. I am aiming for around 2:22. Nice number. I am also aiming for a 11:20 on the two mile. I don't think I will make it to regions, but I am only a sophmore. Junior year, take 15 seconds off my 800m, 6 off of my 400m, 45 off of my 3200m, and run under a 5 minute mile. That would do nicely. I am hydrating, and now have to pee. Goodbye.

May I set many distinguished PRs.

Ben

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

2006-05-07T20:46:00.000-05:00

Friday: Everything hinges on the track meet. Thats all that I care about. School can wait, I have a 4.0. I have a need for speed, plenty of water, and electrolytes. Almost no homework. I have to write an outline for my 8 page Hemingway paper.
The Meet: Huge meet. 16 or more schools there, and there are some really fast people. There are several events, and for a group of sophmores and freshmen, we did pretty well. Man, there were some fast people. This one dude ran the mile in 4:16. Thats insane. I can even sprint a 400m fast enough to get that time, much less sustain it for 4 laps. I just cant do that.... yet. I ran in a 4 x 800m, we got last even though we ran under 10 minutes. There are some really fast schools there. I waited a while, then alot later (6 hours), I ran a two mile. Man, for the slow heat, that was insane. The first 400m was a sprint, I ran a 70 something for the first lap (thats 800m pace), and then we leveled off. I, because I don't like sprinting at the start, ended up second to last in the pack. This wouldn't do, so I started passing people. I'm not that fast, but I do have endurance. At the seventh lap, out of 15 people, I was around 4th. There was this guy behind me, and during that last 400m, we are just fighting, we came out on the last straightaway, and we both broke out into full sprints. I don't know if any of you have, but have you ever run so fast, that you feel as though your legs are going to just go out from under you? Thats what I felt like, and they dude behind me beat me by a half second or so. I didn't care. He was just faster. Also, have any of you ever felt oxygen depletion? Its when you are just so tired, that you can't think straight, and you feel really dizzy. People stagger off of the field and just hurl their guts out. Brutal. The two mile is brutal. I ran an 11:24. By the end of the season, I want to run a 10:59. Thats my goal. After that, my goal is 17 minute 5ks. Great stuff. Another thing. When your brain lacks oxygen, you don't think straight, so I think I insulted a couple friends when they tried to engage me in conversation. Have to check on that. Took a shower, and went to bed.

Saturday: Lawn work. Took off my shirt and got a tan. Found a nest of baby bunnies. Made a fire, roasted smores. Good stuff.

Sunday: Church: The speaker was really boring, and I almost fell asleep. We got home, had pancakes and turkey bacon for lunch. I worked on my homework, and we checked out a sheep and wool festival. Lots of sheep, rednecks, and wool. You realize you are out of place when you see people betting on an "8 hole, stainless steel hog feeder", and the raffle prizes include 500 pounds of sheep feed. Weird.

Came home, took a nap. Perfected my moonwalk. At supper. Did more homework. Help work on my firebird. Finished homework. Started blogging. Finished blogging. Went to bed.

May you never be totally, mentally, physically exausted,

Ben

Stupid Mistake, Today, and Tomorrow

2006-05-04T20:29:00.000-05:00

Last night I had typed up a huge post for Wednesday, and I accentally deleated it. That really sucks. Here is the condensed version. School was boring. Track was hard. We ran 6 300ms and 6 200ms. I am starting to get shinsplints.

Today: School is boring. In history next week we are reenacting the trials of the Rosenburgs (commie spies). I am the judge and I get to wear robes. Fun. I have a 8 page outline due this monday in English. That really sucks.

Track: We didn't do much. We worked on handoffs and I did them very nicely. I am in to events tomorrow. I am in the 4 x 800m, and the two mile. I have shinsplints in my left shin, and I whirlpooled them today. That is when you take a tank of water with bubbles, dump ice in it until it is a comfy 40 degrees, and stick your calfs in it. The first 3 minutes hurt like heck, but after that it feels better. I really hope they don't impede my performance tommorrow. I am aming for a 2:25 on the 800m, and a 11: 15 for the two mile (actually I ran a 11:33, not a 11:40!). The distance coach ran a 10:30 in his prime years. I can beat that. I have two years, and all I have to do is drop 1/3 a second a day for (180 day's, two seasons) of outdoor track. I can so do that. If I get my goal time, I am on leaderboards, and If i get below 11:10, I set a school record. Ownage. I am getting good.

I cleaned the living room for my parents today. I didn't want to work outside, so thats what I did.

May I run swiftly,

Ben

School, Track, and Homework II

2006-05-03T20:41:00.000-05:00

School: Math: We are doing a bunch of deceptivly simple stuff with conic sections. It requires you to manipulate six equasions in very contorted (and demonic) combinations. More about this later. Health: My LSD poem is trippin'! Seriously, I have a pretty good poem, not that I need the points. I am a poet, and man, don't I know it? History: We are doing a reenactment of the Rosenburg trials (commie spies? Got fried?), and I am the judge. Trial starts Wednesday. Objection overrulled. I even get robes. Totally ownage. Science: ARRRRRGGGGGHJNBVVGXCFJ
Track: Hard. 6 sets made up of a 200m sprint and a 300 stride each. I need to lenthen my stride. Oh! Also, I didn't run a 11:40 two mile like I said I did, I ran a 11:33. This means, I have to take off 33 seconds to set a school record, and I have to take off a minute to beat my old track coaches record of 10:30. I can do that thats only taking off 7.5 seconds a lap. I have the speed, I need to work on the endurance. Also, If I run below a 10:30 on Friday, I am on the HoCo (Howard County) leaderboards. Bottom of them, but hey, Im a sophmore. I have time to drop a minute or two.

Homework: Lots of it. History and 15 graphing problems. Ug. I now have a headache.

Ok, I am going to check out some David Elsewhere (google him, dangit).

May I make Counties,

Ben

Yester(To)day: Track and School

2006-05-02T20:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday: School. Nothing really special. Rather boring actually. Science is still extremely stupid. Students in that class are getting very hostile. I quote...

Science Teacher: Tina, be quiet or I will sent you to the office...
Student: I want to go to the office!!
Teacher: No. Stay here. I'll send a disiplinary referral down.
Student: Fine... *Walks out of class*

Great stuff. Last few days of school are really going to be, um, in a state of anarchy. Teacher is so doomed. Pity. Hahaha.

Track: We had a meet at one of the better schools in our area. The home team won, but it was a trimeet and we came in second for all the schools. UNDERCLASSMEN POWER! I had to run two events. I ran the 4 x 8 and the two mile. I was the very first runner in the very first event. Fun. I got a 2:28 for the 800m, but as there is another kid who is just a bit faster (he got under 2:30 one meet before I did), I am stuck on the B team. This means that whatever time I make up will be lost by the people who still have yet to run under 3 minutes. Sad. The 3200m was very intersting. I was stuck with the cross country champion from my school, and as championships are coming up, I need to beat him, and bad. We started off, and after the first 200m the champion was already ahead of me. I was behind him, and behind another dude that was just a bit faster than (my normal pace) me. He followed the champion, and I followed him. I stuck with him for all the laps, and during the last lap, I, sucking in huge amounts of air, was watching something interesting. The champion was flagging, and they kid I was right behind (I had to jump several times to avoid stepping on his feet), was gaining. I stayed with him, and during the last 150m, The kid in front of me started sprinting. I couldn't catch him, (still right on his tail, dagnabbit), but I did get ahead of the champion. Two whole seconds ahead. And, the compition was really good for me. I ran a 11:40 two mile. Thats 5:50 a mile, a pace that (sadly) over half our distance team cant do. I haven't run a mile yet, and my last official mile was just over 6 minutes, so I think I might be able to go sub 5:30. That would make me the second fastest runner on the team. Ownage. Even though I was really dizzy and worn out because of my oxygen starved brain, I didn't fall down. Thank goodness. And Now I am sore. This means county champs. Most excellent.

Today: 93 on a math test. Really sucked. Brought my grade down. Health is boring. English was review. PE was intersting. We had to do 4 perimiter laps (900m or so each (yes thats 900m)). It is rough terrain though, and the going is likewise. I was able to run a decent 12 something. I came in behind a person, but that is because they, unlike me, didn't stop beacuase they knew that they had to run 4 laps instead of 2. I still beat him. Ha. Lunch is lunch. English is English. Quiz tomorrow in French.
Track: 35 minute run. Core workout (really tough). Lots of stretching, I am really sore.

May your miles be swift, and may the opponents just barely be weaker than you are,

Ben

3 Days worth of Posts

2006-04-30T20:53:00.000-05:00

Friday: Beach day at school. Dressed up in full attire. My advisory sent me down to the commons, and the judges judged, and even though I was really good, there was a dude in full scooba gear. He won later in the day. We had the normal day, except for half of 5th and all of 6th period we had a pep rally. Rather interesting. They had several contests, the Sophmores won most of them. The freshmen (n00bs) must have been demoralized by the chant "Freshment SUCK *clap, clap, (clap, clap, clap)". They had a contest with pushups and the we won. The also had a tug of war between select people from the sports teams. They had a weightlifter instructor on both sides, but we (Track) had the best one, when he started pulling, they were just getting dragged off of their feet. Lacrosse (all of them) got off the stands to help, but think about it. Lacrosse has around 25 people. Track has around 60. No contest. None whatsoever. Fun. Track wasn't as hard as we thought. 11 400ms. That is pretty hard, but easier than our other Friday workout. Fun.

Saturday: Nothing much. My room is too bright, I have to find a way to darken it. Did lawn work and stuff for a long time. At 7, we had a "coffee house" at my school with local bands and stuff, and most of the bands were bad, and then when the really good band started playing, we blew a fuse, so their drummer, a kid that goes to my school, got another drum set, and about 4 other drummers, and we did a mosh pit type of thing. Really cool. And I got a glow in the dark bracelet. Fun.

Sunday: Church. Mission conference, so we listened to a bunch of missionaries. Went to Ace with dad to fix our front door. Worked on my Firebird a bit. Really nice. Then we went back to church, and everyone except me and mom went to see a puppeteer. I listened to a verson of the sermon where the dude took his main point, handcuffed it to a chair, and beat it to death with lead lined rubber hoses.

G2g,

Ben

Lots! Tons of 0wnage

2006-04-27T20:02:00.000-05:00

Ok,

First of all, I would like to apolize to all my readers that I haven't updated in a while. I have had tons of stuff to do, so I haven't had a chance to post much.

Monday: Sprit Week at school. First day is "Disney Day", dress up in the form of your favorite Disney character and get blackmailed! The Advisory witht the most percent particiapation gets some free food. Ownage. Track meet. Its at Glenelg. I ran a PR (personal record) of 2:36 of the 800m, and a 12:30 on the two mile. Have to work on that.

Tuesday: Celebrity day. Fun. Our advisory is doing really well. Easy Track workout.

Wednesday: School Sprit Day. Blue and Silver. Fun. Track meet. I ran three events and all were PRs. I ran a 68 400m. A 2:32 (28?) 800m, and a really nice 12:09 two mile. Next event, I am so under 12 minutes. Great time for me, but our best runner just broke 5 for the mile, and broke 11 for the two mile. Insane.

Today: Switch Day (aka Drag Day). Dress up as a girl. Many people dressed up in their girlfriends clothes. Really, really kinky (Read: Stuffed Bras. here). Guys really don't need to show any leg. Girls, continue to do so. Tee hee. I lost something in English, and because I did, the class had to a quiz, and I got lynched repeatedly. Arg. Sucks. Track: Picture day. I was on the end to the right, and the guy to my left is a thrower and is twice as thick as I am. Man, I must look twiggy. Tomorrow we are going to have a tortureous track day. If it can drop my two mile below 11:45. and my 800m below 2:25, It will be worth it. There is no glory until no glory can be achieved.

Tomorrow is beach day, and I will be representing FL. Beach rules!

Also. Really ownage stuff. I have recently heard about pop locking (Matt, read "My backpacks have jets..." here). I have seen some really cool stuff. Check out This. And, last. This. I am trying, truely.

May your homework be easy,

Ben

Church, Bordom, DDR, and the Creek

2006-04-23T20:43:00.000-05:00

I got up, took a shower, and got dressed for church. We went to church, ate donuts, and talked about wisdom. Cool.

Came home, had lunch, and bummed around for an hour and a half while mom and my sister were on the PS2 watching a movie. When they got off, I played DDR for around an hour and a half. I am getting good enough do most of the harder ones on standard and survive.

After that, I put on my waterproof boots and headed down to the creek down at the edge of our property. Really cool. Every thing is green and the water is going faster from all of the rain that weve been getting. Peaceful down there. Might visit there someother time.

Came inside watched 30 min of TV, had supper. Cleaned up after supper, and did homework, blogged and went to bed.

May your friends always have easy solutions to hard problems,

Ben

Rain, Caffine, and Bordom

2006-04-22T20:24:00.000-05:00

Its raining. I woke up at 10:45 and it was raining. I'll fall asleep at 11, and it will still be raining.

I get up, eat breakfast, grab a seat and a warm blanket, and finish Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I fininshed that book in around 5 hours. Sometimes I wish I couldn't read as fast. I would have more distractions. Oh, well.

Dad recuited me for lawnwork eventhough it is raining. We removed and trimmed some bushes that we incroaching on our pool. Very tedious. And I am still sore.

After that I help my dad attach a new side mirror for his truck so we can pass the Maryland inspection.

Then, I came inside, had a coke with caffine, and felt better. I love caffine.

Then I was bord. I ate. I read stuff. I finally played DDR. The fastest pace songs took my mind of my troubles.

Then mom wanted to watch a movie. Its about comedian Victor Borge and he is really funny. Quote , " The difference between a violin and a viola, is very simple. A viola burns longer." Great stuff.

Now I am just checking my email and stuff. I just am really bord.

Also, I'm debating not going to the Spring Fling. I really am not that fond of formals.

May your days have lots of fun activites,

Ben

School and Totally Brutal Track

2006-04-21T19:16:00.000-05:00

School: Math was really easy. I think I must have missed something, it was that easy. Really freaky. Health: Drugs and all that stuff. Really funny. History: Civil Rights. Science: I am now positive that I am smarter than the teacher. She doesn't know anything outside of the book. I wonder what she would get on the final? Lunch: Two of the people that I was friends with broke up, and the table has been feeling the fallout. This is a signal for me to get out of the way. With the Spring Fling (Formal) Dance coming up, I really need to keep a low profile. (Matt, you remember what happened to me in FL with my "club", its happening again, and I have to tread carefully). I am too shy to ask anyone to the dance. Also, oddly enough, I think I will say no to any invites. If I really want to go with someone, I think that I will ask her myself. Next week: Sprit week. We have to dress up as our favorite Disney chars, we have to drag, we have to dress up as our favorite celebrety, etc). Good news! They have a beach day, and as a (mental) resident of FL, I shall be the king of beachyness. (Matt, remember my ownage bathing suit?). Pure Ownage.

The Brutalness of Track: This was the most insane practice ever. I felt like I was going to throw up, and one of the girls almost started crying. The workout consisted of: a 400m, 300m, 200m at the pace of 19 seconds per 100m. This is my almost top speed. Then we did the 400m, 300m, 200m again. And then we did it again. Then, we did a 400m, another 400m, another 400, and just to shake things up, another 400m, and yet another 400m. At the beginning of the workout, I ran a 71 second 400m (PR!). By the end of the workout, I ran a 81. This is probably the most pain I have ever experienced. The first 200m aren't bad, but as you come around the last corner, and hit the wind, it just kills you. At the end of most of the 400m I have my eyes almost closed, sucking in massive amounts of air, and just pushing myself so the 400m would end. The total workout was almost 3 miles of sprinting, with more walking and jogging in between. I have felt pain, the 2 mile is a race where the person who can ignore the most pain wins, but to our oxygen starved brains, this was a cold, windy, rainy hell. And the gatekeeper was a smiling man with a shaved head and a waterproof jacket. What really ticks me off is the fact that even though they anounce the results of every sport, the never, ever, mention track. Just because you can do something with a ball doesn't make you the best. Most people in track are the fastest, strongest people. And we never get recognition. I want to make the lacrosse team do our workout, while we do therse. We won't do that good, but at least we could walk at the end of it. Track seems gloryless sometimes. To the photogenic go the spoils. Bah.

May you never suffer from oxygen deprivation,

Ben

School, Track, and Homework

2006-04-20T20:34:00.000-05:00

School: Math, simple, but long. I have some homework. Health: Boring, but still some homework. History: Empty, but still homework. PE! DANG PE! They made us take 5 gallon buckets, fill them full of dirt, and walk around the baseball field filling holes! Sheesh, If I wanted slave labor, I could have sold myself on ebay. If they wanted labor, just ask Uncle Sam. My family does pay taxes. Sheesh. The indignity. English: Dramatic reading staring myself as Macebeth. Seriously, as you are reading them, you have to read the words, not the sentaces. The sentances really mess you up, and that is weird. French: Sub, so some more translating work.

Track: New captain. Some girl sprinter I don't know. She did good at the meet though, so it is probably good. We had weight room today, that is good because it was 70+ degrees out there. I didn't mind, but most of the people did. I love FL weather. We did more weights, and I have seen some progress. Buffness. Buffness is pure Pwnage. After the weight room we went on a 25 minute run, and had the opportunity to run pass some middle schoolers. Man, was i really that small? And, if so, was I really that annoying? We also did a core workout for a change. I needed it. I am started to get cramps. I drank alot of water today. It was really hot.

Homework: Math. Easy stuff. History, questions in chapter 21.2. Health: make a creative poster on the four stages of addiction. Fun stuff.

Gonna go to sleep soon, as it is almost 10. Will do the remainer of my math tomorrow. Only have 4 more problems or such.

May your body never run out of dihydrogen monoxide,

Ben

School and The Glory of Track

2006-04-19T19:10:00.000-05:00

School: Stuff. Not important. I have a 4.0 GPA for the third quater. Nothing to worry about.

Track: We had a track meet today! The bus coming over was ultra-jampacked, 3 people to every seat, and people sitting on the floor besides. We got to the school, and unloaded. We did two warm up laps, and stretched out. We were early and the host school had already warmed up, and we had the track to ourselves.

One of the first evens was the 4 x 800m relay. I didn't get my times on that, but I know the coach expected us to run under 10 minutes. The A team got under that, but the B team went over. The C team got crushed. So sad. I was in B, and I think I ran pretty well even though I was a little stiff and sore from the 200m strides the day before. A team got 6th or something, and B got 9th. As good as our team is, we really can't compete against testosterone laden seniors.

They had several events between the 3200 relay, and the open 3200m (two mile) that I was running. Most of my teammates, not stupid enough to run the two mile, ran the mile, and our fastest person, Matt, was 4th or so with a time of 5:03. Insane.

The two mile came, and I got a good lead, holding the lead for the first 200m. Then, straight of of the movie "Attack of the Seniors" two 6' 3" people blow by me and remain at least a half a lap ahead for the rest of the race. I did good for the first mile, but then people started passing me. These people were from the same school, and lumped togeather. Great strategy, as it is hard to get past two people running side by side, much less six. I stayed behind them, and someone else passed me, but I passed him just before a turn, and he couldn't get back in. Use brains, so they have to use brawn. The last 4 laps hurt, but i kept with it. As I finished the lap that I though was my last, no one stopped me, and there was no one infront of me, so I thought that I had another lap to go. The coach had to come and get me. Man, I was tired. My time: 12:27. This is a minute and three seconds faster than my last 2 mile time. It hurt more though.

I was exausted. My muscles, sore from the races and practices, just weren't working. I felt like I was still catching my breath up to an hour after the race, but 12:27. Dang. That is aprox. 6:13 a mile. My last mile time was a 6:05. I kinda want to run the mile now to see what I can get. Dang, not right now though. I came home, at a protein rich supper (gotta rebuild them muscles), and put my feet up to keep the lactic acid from stagnating in them. I then took a shower, and it felt good. I watched some TV, and then answered some emails, and now I am blogging. No homework, but I have PE tomorrow, and my legs better feel better!

May your endorphines always kick in for the last half,

Ben

Back to School, Report Cards, and Track

2006-04-18T20:22:00.000-05:00

Back to School: Math: Easy, Health: Could it be anything but? History: The Civil Rights Movement. P.E.: Why it is good to be a runner, reason 45. Lunch: ummmm, Food. English: Stupid Macbeth, passed notes most of the time. I do have a great seat there. French: SUB! Weird people in that class. Including a "hooker" (don't even think about asking) and two really weird, perverted guys right behind me. Sickening.

Report Cards: 4.0 GPA, nothing to worry about. Keeps the folks happy. Dang, I love how the only class that I don't have an A in is a class that doesn't count on my GPA.

Track. I think I have figured out my place. I am the sixth best runner on the team. This is really bad, not because of the place, but because I am always stuck on B teams. I am running truly decent times, and my teammates get lapped. Linky here . This guy isn't ahead, he is getting lapped. Not fun.

Track meet tomorrow, and even so, the coach made us do 50,50,50,50s and 200m strides. My legs hurt, and I hope they go away. I have two 2 mile runs to knock my time down on tomorrow. Im aming for somewhere within 12 min. If I get below 12:10, it means I run 2 miles at my last clocked 1 mile time. Rather sad concidering that one person on my team is expected to finally run below a 5 minute mile. He is aming for 4:50 something. Really nice.

May my blog ever be read, and my my legs carry me to a victory (school record is 11:10, and soon will be lower, hopefully),

Ben

Welcome all new readers! Leave a comment, and if it is interesting, I'll get back to you, if it isn't, you just wasted your time.

Easter: Friends, Family, and Food

2006-04-17T09:20:00.000-05:00

We woke up, and Dad had a big plate of pancakes and Kabalsa sausages waiting for us. We gratefully ate those, and then we had an hour and a half before we had to get ready for church. I spent the time getting dressed, cleaning my room, and listining to a horribly abridged version of Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6.

At church they had a nice orchestra and sermon, and for the finale, the choir sung the Hallelujah chorus in almost the exact manner that I had sung that last easter, so the base part of the song was stuck in my head for the rest of the day. We parked as far as possible away from the church, and that turned out to be good in the long run, and we were able to circumvent tons of traffic in the parking lot. We came home, grabbed our ham and other foods and headed over to my cousins house.

There, they took our food and served us a Easter "dinner". Turkey, Ham, Pineapples, Mashed Potatos.... Everything. It was very nice, even if I still was a little full from the 6 pancakes I ate during breakfast. After the real food was pushed away, they brought out blueberry pie, and a nice cake. I ate the cake with ice cream. Very tasty.

We brought some of moms cousins from New York over to our house for a tour and all the other. Stuff. They looked at the house, chatted a bit, and then left. I retreated to my room and continued to listen to Rainbow 6.

For the rest of the day, I alternated my time between DDR, Rainbow 6, and the Simpsons. I have no school on monday. YAY.

At about 9, we (sis, cousin, and I) started to watch Narnia. We finished it around midnight, and then went to sleep.

May your days be ever languid,
Ben

Saturday

2006-04-15T20:54:00.000-05:00

Woke up at around Nine. Had breakfast. Dissected my Ipod. Check my earlier blogs for details.

Messed around on the computer.

Listened to Rainbow 6 by Tom Clancy. Ate sunflower seeds.

Raked some grass that my brother cut.

Went out and watched Ice Age 2. Don't do it, its not really worth it. Rather predictable.

Bought some ice cream, came home, ate it.

Now I shall sleep.

May your opponents always have low caliber/velocity bullets.

ben

The Ipod: A Dissection

2006-04-15T10:51:00.000-05:00

Ok. I have recently had to dissassemble my Ipod to fix a small headphone jack problem. I have heard others having this problem, so I am going to tell you how to dissassemble your ipod. This method causes little damage, and with the cap over the USB port, no damage should be noticed.

First: Prepaire the Ipod

Get your tools:
X-Acto Knives
Pliers (don't use these unless you are truly desparate)

You also might want:
A magnifing glass
A small probe
Band-Aids (X-Acto knives + people = me asking my dad to stop bleeding over my Ipod)
Some type of anti-adhesive substance

Take the Ipod, and turn it upside down. Have the USB port looking up at you. Take a sharp X-Acto knife and scrape around the inside of the Ipod.

This will take a while, so put on a nice playlist. Gradually work the knife deeper along the inside. When you start hearing cracking noises (hopefully of the glue breaking), take your knife and put some anti-adhesive on it to help disolve the glue. This stage took me a long, long while. Be patient. It will come. Don't rush this stage, and be carefull not to shove the Knife to deep into the Ipod or your fingers.

Stage 2: When you have loosened the seal enough, carefully grab the usb port with your fingers or another tool and wiggle it up and down. If you have cut enough, it should comeout without excessive force.

If you have done everthing right, your ipod should now look like this.

Take a knife and pry the On-Off switch off. This is prety easy. Make sure the switch is in the off position.

Then, take a pen and push down gentally in the headphone port.

This will push the Ipod's guts down out the bottom just a bit. Grab the edges and pull the rest of the guts completely out of the Ipod.

THERE! Your Ipod is now dissassembled! Assembly is just the reverse of the dissassembly process.

Closer pictures of the inside of the ipod can be found...

Pic of the battery can be found here.
This is what apple replaces if your battery goes dead.

Back Top Half of Ipod
Ipod Front
Ipod Buttons
Another Battery Pic

I have some more pics, but I am hesitant to post them. If you want to see anyother part of the Ipod, just leave a comment and your email, and I will give you the links.

May your Ipod always reassemble,

Ben

Food, Pop, and my Ipod

2006-04-14T19:15:00.000-05:00

Today: Rather boring day. We didn't go to the Washington Aqarium today, so we just bummed around the house.

Food; I like eating. I am 5'10" and 120 pounds. I, when I was 5' 8", weighed 100. I think I have gained just some of the weight aquired with 2 inches of hight, and the rest of the weight is muscle that I have put on from running. Rather cool. We went to Chilie's today for supper, and I downed a full rack of BBQ Baby Back Ribs. They were a bit dry, and had some gristle, but my grandparents were buying, and I was very content.

Pop: My grandmom has an aversion to pop. I call it soda, but nvm. Its rather amusing. I am in superb physical shape, have a metabolism that reaches mach 3.4, and am unaffected by the addition of caffine, and she doesn't want me to drink it! This and she comes over and brings a huge bag of nuts, a bag of milk duds, and a large easter egg filled with Reeses Pieces. Rather amusing. If I am ever that inconsistant, beat me about the head and sholders with a large trout (if you are a true (IRC) geek, that has more meaning).

My Ipod. As you know, (or don't) my Ipod shuffle, light of my life, has developed a slight problem. Its headphone jack has a problem in which you only get sound from one ear if the headphone plug isn't in the right place. With luck, I intend to dissasseble the ipod, and fix the problem. I have two guides, found here and here . Wish me luck, so that If I don't fix it, I can at least reassemble it and sell it on ebay for 10-20 bucks. I need a mp3 player for running. I miss my moble music.

May your Ipods always have stero sound.

Ben

Track, Shopping, and Sleep (or lack thereof)

2006-04-13T20:30:00.000-05:00

Track: Rather painful if interesting work out. We did a 20 minute warm up, and then ran back to the track. Once there we found out that we would have to run eight 400s. That is 2 miles of sprinting. I missed the first 400, because I was changing out of my underarmour, as it was a really hot day. The second time I ran a 78, not my fastest time, but speedy.The third time I ran a 75! My record time before that was a 76. AND, the lap after that, I ran a 72! I shaved 4 seconds of my 400 time. This is great stuff. I don't like sprints, because there is a point were you just have to get faster. This is not a concern with distance. I know that I can run at the speeds necessary to be a top runner. The entire goal is to achive more endurance, to be able to keep up those times, allowing me to run fast - Far! Very good stuff. I really hope to improve on this, and get below 70 by the end of the season. The season ends midway through May, so I will have to find something to do to keep in shape. This I have found. Cross Country is the next sport after summer vacation, and I have decided to train for a marathon during the summer. The Baltimore Underarmour Marathon is in October, and I think If I start hardcore training in June/July, I can run this. 26.2 miles. Bring it on.

Shopping: After Track, we went shopping at Target. My sister and out cousing got makeup. I got sunflower seeds. A waste of gas all around. Then we went to Michaels. This is a large craft store that I dislike. I dislike this store for one reason: It is a store full of stuff that I am to lazy, or to dumb to do. I really don't care about the artistic spirt. You can shove your pastels and paints up your...

Sleep: I am tired and sore. I think i will go to bed and do 150 crunches (I am having running cramps), and then fall asleep, and stay in that condition as long as physically possible.

May your nights never be interupted by the blare of an alarm clock,

Ben

P.S. I have now removed the posting limitations for comments. You can now post without signing up for blogger.com. Feel free to comment spontaniously. And, no, setting copies of my blog afire with Moltov Cocktails will not be tolerated.

Track, My Knee, and Starwars Battlefront I

2006-04-12T19:01:00.000-05:00

Track: A 25 minute fartlek (a term for intervals of training, you do so many minutes hard, and then so many minutes easy). We did a 5:1 fartlek (5 minutes easy, 1 hard). Then we did some yoga type moves to stretch out, and I found out that I have a far superior balence compaired to other people. After this, we played dodgeball, and I was amazed at the variety of matrix like moves myself and others did to avoid oncoming projectiles. Rather cool.

My knee: It is starting to hurt again. Hope it gets better soon. We have a hard track workout tomorrow.

Starwars Battlefront: Started playing that game again. I so own at that, I need to get a network adapter so I can play online.

Also, really cool song. The Rejection by Dangerous Muse is a really cool song. Its a very dark, deep electronica song with awsome vocals... "I like to like you like you like me..."

Sorry I can't post anymore, but today was rather boring.

Ben

Track, Spring Break, and Grandparents

2006-04-11T20:25:00.000-05:00

Track: A really nice run today. After leaving the school grounds, we went down a nearby road. It was level for the first half mile, then it started sloping. It was a 10-15 degree slant, and we got to run down it for the first 30 minutes. We were doing about 10 min/mile pace. We stopped at the bottom, and rested and stretched for a while, then started walking up the slope. We soon broke into a jog, and ran the entire thing again, uphill. It was a nice workout, but also it was really nice because the road that we took was right beside a brook, and birds were singing. It was just a pleasent run where we could look at squirrels and stuff. We ran probably around 7 miles in 1:07 or thereabouts with some breaks. Nice workout, but my knee seems to be acting up again. I think I will takeit easy tomorrow, as the coach said that we are having a fun day. Took some multi-vitamans and some glucosamine, and hope that my knee heals before our distance coach gets back. He will work us hard then, as we have a meet soon after spring break. Rather interesting.

Spring Break: Going rather nice. Get up at 8. Run at 9. Stop at 11. Take a 15 min shower. Eat. PS2. Computer. Eat. Eat. Eat.

Grandparents: My relitives are here. It is nice, mom is making really good meals, and she has bought lunch meat for once. No more Campbells soup for me. The only downside to this is that mom really mad me clean up today before they came. Our new house is huge, and that is alot of space to vacuum.

Also. Found a great site for stress releif. You can find it here . It is a fun filled game where you blast the crap out of enimies with a variety of nasty weapons. Read the instructions, the controls are complicated, but easy once you get that hang of them. Watch out, 56k may have trouble. So will older comps (like mine!). Still really fun though.

Matt, if you still want to trade beef for Irish Dancing Girls, you know where to find me.

Ben

Track, Spring Break, Grandparents, Haircuts, and Food

2006-04-10T20:12:00.000-05:00

Track: Got up at 8am and got ready for track. Dad brought me to the school at 8:45 and I bummed around with the throwers (they were here early due to weight-room stuff). I found out that shotput was harder than it looks. I threw a girls (6 pound) shotput 7 feet. Yay. We did some pliometrics stretches and then did our 3 lap warm up. We stretched some more, and did drills. Our distance coach had brought his two klds (ages 4? and 2?) and that put him in a good mood. But, it wasn't that great, his 2 year old was running all over the track ( his Dad is so proud) and the coach said that if we ran him over, he would get mad, beat us into a pulp, AND double the workout. We ran a 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000. I was in the first or second place for all of those work outs. I was running meet times repeatedly in practice. I'm in high cotton. We did another 400 and another 200m. Then we finished with a 10 minute cool down run.

I have figured out what I need to get so I can compete in Districs and such. Hocorunning.com has the times for the district meets and such. My event, I have decided, is the 2 mile. I ran a 13:30 at the last meet, and I think that I could shave 30 seconds off of it just by pushing myself. At states, the last runner (15th place also last place) ran a 11:51.61. This means to get on states, I will have to shave my time down to 11:30. This means I would have to lose 2 minutes. This is 120 seconds, and works out to 15 seconds a lap. That means I will have to run 86.25 400s. I can run (in just a 400m) 76 seconds, so I will have to be able to run 8 laps, 10 seconds faster than I can run one lap now. If I was to be real competitive, I would have to get my time to 10:30 or 78.75 seconds a lap. 11:30 is my goal. This would allow me to be 15th in states, and It would give me 13th out of 17 runners. I will have to work hard.

Spring Break: Rather boring. The days go alot faster if you could sleep in till noon. I spend my time playing PS2, and messing around on the internet.

Grandpartents: My moms grandparents are coming over for the week. So is my cousing Lola, which my sister is overjoyed at. I just hope I can stay out of the way.

Haircut: My hairstyle. I just got a hair cut, and my hair is down to my eyebrows. I swoosh it over till it starts to cover my right eye. ()wnage.

Food: Lots of it. I am eating tons, and mom is getting ticked off. We spent $350 on groceries in April, and it is only the 10th. Hopefully, moms groceries will last a bit longer this time.

I g2g, Its almost bedtime. May I run a 11:30 two mile,

Ben

Running in the Rain

2006-04-08T13:39:00.000-05:00

This is early Saturday, and I woke up at 8:45 on my spring break to go to track practice. It was around 50 degrees, a light wind, and rain. We got there, and he sent the 3 distance people that were going to work distance on a 50 minute run. This isn't just a regular run. It is rainy and cold, and we have to get off of the pavement some times or our shins would be ground into pulp. It was hard to get started, but after we did, we went and ran all over the mud. It was very fun, and even though we went at a slow pace, it was a nice time to enjoy nature and the mud. Our shoes were soaked, but It was still fun. I got home and took a 20 minute shower to warm up. Man, I was cold.

But boy, was it fun,
Ben

Friday, Track, and Thumbdrives

2006-04-08T13:05:00.000-05:00

Friday: No homework in any of my classes. Spring break should be homework free.

Thumbdrives: I had to present today for English. I was telling my friend about the problems I was having with my thumbdrive, and he, for some reason, lent me his to use. I got a pass to the media center for lunch. I went there, signed in. I found out that I couldn't reformatt my thumbdrive because of some stupid permissions issue. I took out my friends thumbdrive, and opened my email client to get my mail with the report in it. The media center director comes over and gives me a huge talk to about using email at school. I told him what I was doing and he let me download my songs and stuff, and then when he saw the songs, he gave me another lecture on the permissions and fair rights act. 10% of a song or 30 seconds, whatever is less. I finally got it done, and I did my presentation. Took me long enough.

Track was interesting. We did the weight room and then did another run where we did 10 mins easy and then 15 minutes at an offroad pace faster than I was running the two mile. That was brutal, but I, unlike the rest of the team, stayed with the top two runners. Fun.

Cya
Ben

Thursday, Track, and School

2006-04-08T13:02:00.000-05:00

Thursday: Very boring.

Track: We went on a 45 minute run, and we went around in a new loop. The change of scenery was very nice. It was just a nice fun run. Got to work out all my soreness from yesterday. Then, after we thought we had the day easy, we did four Hills. This is the hill that you go down, break both your ankles, and the kill your quads when you sprint to the top. We did 4 laps, and I finished third. Nice.

My thumbdrive didn't work at school because of some formatting issue. I email the files to myself, and I shall format my drive on the school comps, and then use that. I really really hope it works.

Overclocking: A very interesting idea that I have never considered. When I build my own comp, overclocking will definitly be a factor. Google it. It is very cool.

Sorry I can't talk more, but I want to catch up on some sleep. During spring break, because of track, I will be getting up at 8am to run at 9.

May your runs have nothing to do with gastric illness,
Ben

School, Track Meet Glory, and Apples

2006-04-05T17:40:00.000-05:00

School: Boring, science was better than normal, but the class made me shut up because they said I sounded too smart. Idiots.

Track Meet: At Hebron. Cold as heck, and even windier. That, and I'm in a tee shirt, a jersy, and running shorts (these shorts put the "short" in shorts. I had to roll my boxer-briefs up so they wouldn't show at the bottom) The shorts also have a pair of elastic underware. This underware is the reason that boxers and boxer-briefs sell so well. Lets just say they clung uncomfortably to areas that I prefer comfortable at all times. I am freezing, but when I am moving it isn't so bad. Temperature is around the low 40s, and my Dad on the bleachers is freezing. He will be sore tomorrow. Ok, enough griping, on to my events.

The 4 x 800m
This was a lost cause. Not due to my fault, the team that I was on ended up getting lapped by the first, second, and third place winners. I came in last, so I didn't push like mad. I got a 83 (seconds) on the first lap and 90 on the second lap, giving me a 2:53 800. Not bad, but not good enough for me to stay on the 800 team. I (hopefully, I hate the 800) will be replaced by faster, and more willing participants.

The 1600m (Or the Mile)
Some really fast people in this one. We had a guy race a 5:07 and he didn't even place. I ran...
1st: 1:24
2nd: 1:39
3rd: 1:38
4th:1:28 (I was second to last and the guy tried to pass me. Good luck. I sprinted and ended up a good 15 feet ahead of him)

The Glorious 3200m (2 Mile)
This was a great race. I found my pace, and just loved it. I didn't come in last either. I did get lapped though, but so did everyone else. Man, there are some fast seniors on their team. Here is my times, Dad dropped the watch, so one of the time is for two laps.
1. 1:27
2. 1:39
3. 1:42
4. 1:49
5 and 6. 3:33
7. 1:43
8. 1:37
I was running almost neck and neck with the second to last runner for 2,3,4. I was trying to pass him, but he just kept gaining on the curves. I finally got passed him and fell into my pace. When you are in your pace, your breathing syncs with the beat of your feet and you endorphines are rushing. I felt so good. I felt that I was flying and can run forever. I think I would have done a 5k just out there If I wasn't in a track. I felt good. I want to do another one of those again. I think I will remember that forever. 2 miles in 13:30 with an avarage pace of 6:45. I was running 2 miles 40 seconds each slower than my mile time. Great stuff.

Apple: Sacreligious news. clicky but then again, just another reason to switch to macs. Swich now. Do it.

Ok, my muscles are sore, and I have some emails and reading to catch up with.
May you always find your pace,
Ben

Why I Haven't Posted, Sunday, and Monday

2006-04-03T19:50:00.000-05:00

Germs are evil.
Monday: 102 Fever, Sore throat.
Tuesday: 102 Fever, Really Sore Throat.
Wednesday: 101 Fever, Sore Throat.
Tuesday: No Fever, Sore Throat, Upset stomach.
Friday: Intense nausea and vomiting ever 45 min (not fun)
Saturday: Mild Nausea a some vomiting.
Sunday: Better.

Sunday: We had family come over for my sisters 14th Birthday. Me and my cousin (who just joined the paratroopers) grabbed food (lots for him, a little for me) and played pool, threw darts, played PS2 for the rest of the day. I let mom deal with all the relitives. Feeling alot better, at a supper with solid food! YAY!

Monday: School as usual. Science is at its normal levels. I ran 5 miles for track and found out that I am just a little slower and have lost about an inch of flexibility in my legs. Rather annoying. I worked hard for that.

Apple: As it nears its 30th anniversary, I shall look back.
The first operating system I became competent on (Age 9) Mac 8.5
The first operating system I used OS 7 I just dismatled the computer that ran that recently. I have the hard disks on my bookshelf.

Good old OS X I remember the day we installed this. *Sniff*

Also apple better release some new stuff soon. Their product line is getting old. Cross your fingers.

Computers, like Air Conditioning, can't work with Windows open.

Ben

Church, and Sickness

2006-03-26T21:12:00.000-05:00

Got up, my throught was kinda scratcy. Went to church. Came home. Had Soup for lunch.

Helped Dad with a wheelbarrow. I am now offically taller than Dad.

Came inside, ate jelly beans, took a nap.

Woke up with 100.5 fever and had pandcakes.

Took some asprin. Read Andromida Strain by Micheal Chriton.

Aswered some email. Thanks to Emily for the quiz.

And now I am blogging.

I hope I get better soon.

Look at yesterdays blog for my track stuff. I am very proud of it.
Ben

Track Meet

2006-03-25T19:23:00.000-05:00

Ok. My track meet: Get at my school. Change shoes. Get on the bus. We drive to the other school. We run 2 warm up laps around the track. We stretch out, after finding a spot on the bleachers, we sit back and wait for the races to be called. The first race, a moral booster, we had our girls 4 x 800 team win a spot on the awards list. After a couple more races, we (Matt, Kevin, Scott, and I) lined up for the start of the boys 4 x 800 relay. Matt lead, and because he is a VERY good runner, he gave us forth place for the first two laps. Kevin got the baton, and he, through no fault of his own, droped us down to fifth. The baton was passed to Scott, and he lost another place. Finially, my worst race was here, and I got the baton for the first time. I did a respectable 1:16 for the first lap, but I, not a middle distance runner, faded from pace and got a decent 1:38 for the second lap. This gave me a total of 2:54 seconds, a good time, but not good enough. We lost some more slots and slipped into 9th.

I rested, and at my bannana and a cookie. I felt alittle lightheaded, so I took a nap for 20 minutes. I got up and we started warming up for the 4 x mile. NOTE: All times represented hereforth on the blog are not offical. Dad took these, and through slight errors he gained a couple seconds, I will post the offical times soon. We started running, and I took an (lower than!) 1:35 on my first lap, a 1:37 on my second, a 1:35 on my third, and a 1:34 on my last. This gives me a (lower than) 6:21 mile. Our team got a 26:35 total with the winning team getting a 19;56. I rested up again, ate my last cookie, and stretched out for my last event, another (darn) 800m. Fortunatly, I traded my 800 with Mike for another mile. It was cold so we treid to keep on stretching and moving to keep warm. Then it started drizzling. I had a windbreaker, but my bare legs were freezing. Finally, we started running a Distance Medly Relay (a 1200, 400, 800, 1600). I had the mile last, and when I ran it I didn better on the offical times, but dad gave me a 1:33, 1:38, 1:37, and a 1:42.I know I did't go higher than 90 seconds a lap through.

All in all, I did better than I thought I would do, shaving some time off of my mile.

My legs hurt, and I want to do something else,
Ben

Friday, Track, and Dreams

2006-03-24T21:15:00.000-05:00

Friday: The day when everone is tired, yet somehow hyper because we don't ahve t o school tomorrow. Math was laid back, but it always is. In Health we are watching "Osmosis Jones". History is just some review for an assesment. PE was a game off boccer. I decribed it Wednesday. Wild game. I made tons of interceptions. I also got hit in the bicep when it was sore so it sore now. English: we started wading through Shakesspere's MacBeth. It containes the memorable line, "Unsex me now", and we are all anxious for the teacher to decribe the line. French: the teacher is freaking out over the assements that are happining monday and tuesday, so we did tons of review.

Track: Really relaxed. They couldn't make us run hard as we are doing a meet tomorrow, so we just kept loose and passed passing the baton. Interesting. I also found a chopstick while we are running. Good Omen?

Dreams: Tomorrow I will get on a bus at 10 and drive over to Glenelg (dont say the last "g" or the will eat you. There I will run in the 4 x mile relay, allowing me to put my under six minute mile (hopefully) to good work. I also will be running the 4 x 800 relay running anchor. This is one of my worst events, and I hope the coaches confidence isn't misplaced. My mile team is good, but my 800m is not. Our coach is using this to obtain mile times and such. I am torn between the ideas of running really hard and trying to win this match, but if I do that, and later slow down, the coach might think I am slacking. I think I will try for an 6 minute mile. The 800 I dont care about as much. I also am an alternate for some of the later distance medly races.

Right now, I am hydrating, and listing to my best techno to get pumped up! MUSTANGGGGGGSSS!!!!!!!

May I be swift,
Ben

Tuesday: Track, School, and Youth Group

2006-03-22T21:55:00.000-05:00

This blog is gonaa be quick, because I have to go to bed.

Track: Weight room. I am buffness. Maxed out sholders, now they are sore. Did a 25 minute run. Did 2 laps of 50,50,50,50s. Went inside and stretched. Got conformation for the met we are going too Saturday. Hope I don't let my team or myself down. Pain is just french bread.

School: Math is blah, did my history homework there. Health, blah. History, blah. PE, huge game with 5 balls 25 people 4 goals. Lots of cardio. Got tackled by to jcks when I wouldn't give them the ball. Flipped one, but the other one got on top and I couldn't shake him. Lots the ball. Hurt the area on my left hand between the index finger and the thumb. Blood. Next time he is gonna be flipped into a heavy, imovvable object (preferably with spikes). Lunch, blah, English, blah. French, need my caffine and suger so it was also blah.

Youth group. Two people from my englsih class go to it. played football, caught a touvhdown pass. Lesson, rather short. Basketball: kept one guy out of the game entirely, anything that came his way i intencepted. Made some bad passes though. It really wasn;t my fault. Some black guy knew how to change directions in mid air. odd.

Got to go sleep. Sleep.
Ben

PS Tuesday wan't important.

My Weekend, Monday, and Homework

2006-03-21T17:34:00.000-05:00

Saturaday: One of those days were your too tired to do anything, and it is too nice outside to stay inside and play the computer, so you just stay out of the way, hoping that Mom or Dad won't enlist you in some chore or other. Sleep, my kingdom for some sleep. Also found a really interesting Rubik's cube website here

Sunday: Church. We are going to this one church pretty regularly now, and some of my friends from school go to the church, so that is nice. Got home, flew my stunt kite for just a little bit, it was too gusty. Man, it is windy in Maryland. In Flordia it is warm and calm. *Sniff*

Monday: Nothing much. Math is really easy, I have done all the stuff before. Health is blah, and that is an insult to blah. PE is still cool though, after the first game of team handball, in whitch all the people that really didn't want to play left (one girl nailed me somewhere I would have not prefered to be nailed), we had a much better game, "Whites vs Asians". The Asians were good, if a bit stupid at times. Once the one guy layed down in front of the goal to block it. This left me with one choice, recalling previous experiences, i wound up, and nailed the guy somewhere he would not like to be nailed. I caught the rebounds and sank it over his curled up form. All is fair in love, war, and team handball.

Techology Update: My Ipod died today at the age of 2 and a half. It shall be replaced by a 1gig Ipod here, down the page some. Dad is also softening up to the new mac. Life is good.

Track: Weights. Lots of weights. and over 150 situps. Good thing nice abs are sexy.

Cya, Ill post tuedsays info later tonight.
Ben (now offically known by the Track team as "Flordia"

Friday: Test Choices, Running, and Dance

2006-03-18T15:54:00.000-05:00

Friday: Rather normal at the start. Got a 96 on my math test and it pulled my grade up to an A. It was down to a B because I misread 3 BCR questions. I didn't know what BCR's were, and didn't answer them correctly. Now that I know they are constrictive responce questions, I can do them.

Science was a little more boring than usual. We are writing a report and we did reasearch for 90 minutes. I simply propped a large science textbook up, opened "Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemmingway, and attemped to read 200 pages of it. I was due next period. I was able to do that, but instead of taking the test on that book, I chose to take the test on "A Seperate Peace" by John Knowles. I had read this book back in Flordia , and I think I did OK on the test.

Track was OK. My ankle still hurt, but it wasn't as bad as Thrursday. It did start hurting more when we did the 100 meter strides for drills, but I was able to complete them. After that, we went to the weight room for circut training to build up endurance and core stablility and all that stuff. After that, we did a 40 minute run. Dad had come to watch me practice, but I was in the weight room, and then I was all over the school grounds. He was rather disapointed, but I couldn't exactly run in circles around the van. Bad for your hips.

I got home, took a shower, ate food, and went to supper. After supper, I cleaned off the table, and watched the Simpsons and Sienfield. Good Stuff.

I got ready for the Dance after that. It was 80s themed, so I put on an old plaid jacked we found around the house. I didn't sweep my hari like i normally did, bt just brushed it over to one side.

The Dance was rather intesting. For a Dance, they only played two 80s songs (Cha Cha, and The Electric Slide) and one dance song (Everytime We Touch, by Cascada). Stupid n00bs. I had heard of that song two months before it hit the raidio, Arg.

Dancing was interesting. I needed someone to find me a partner, but after that it was rather easy.

Got to Go,

Ben

Stupid, Pain, Dances, and the Matrix

2006-03-16T21:45:00.000-05:00

Today I woke up an hour early. "So what", you say. Well, I woke up an hour early, felt tired, but got up, got ready for school including a shower. Then I looked at the clock. I was an hour ahead, and could have gotten more sleep. That really sucked. I went back to bed for 45 mintes, but this stupidity was only the start of this rather unpleasent day.

I, after PE, had lunch and bought a ticket for the dance. Only, my mom packs my peanut butter, jelly, and bread in diffrent packages, and the jelly packet had spilled its guts all over the rest of my lunch. This made my lunch extemely sticky, and rather intersting to eat.

Track. The most painful track yet. 5 kilometers, or 3 miles of sprinting. 300m in 60 seconds, rest for 60 seconds, repeat. There are several things I'm not an they are: a plumber, a proffessional wrestler, and a sprinter. This hurt. On my 10th 300m, I slipped, and hurt my already rather tender ankle. This was not minor pain that you can shake off, this is pain that adds 10 seconds to your 300. It started hurting worse and worse. People started noticing the fact that my face was drawn with the pain. I got home, grabbed a snack, grabbed a packet of frozen veggies, applyed them to my ankle and set down to watch Matrix. Just before Neo is offered the pills, my brother had dumped hot ashes on our leaf pile, and started a large blaze. I hobbled out, and put the fire out.

My ankle is feeling better, and I hope I can run on it tomorrow. Track is starting to hurt, and I am not the fastest guy on the team, and, I wish the real world was like the Matrix, where only your mind defined how fast you were. If that were so, I think I would be much better at track.

Have to sleep. Must rest my ankle,
Ben

Next Blog detailes the completion of my room.

School, Track, and My Broken Body

2006-03-14T17:23:00.000-05:00

School. Nothing too great. Math test. I think I miss one, but it is not sucha big deal. History: The Class has to individually present a "Living History" Project. It involves an oral presentaion. My History teacher said at the biginning of the semester that I, being new, didn't have to do one. I get to sit in the back of the class and run the video camera. The fact that I have weazeled my way out of the prject is a source of jealous resentment. Haha. N00bs.

PE. Team Handball. Small hard ball. Three Steps, three throws before you make a goal. Great game. But not if you are playing with a team that togeather may have watched an entire sporting event, and your opponents are the people who are in as many sports as possible in hopes that they will get a free ride to colledge, becuase they sure arn;t going to get there by their grades. As about 4 people on my team could catch (Me, myself, I, and some asian dude), we dominated the loosers bench. WHY? WHY? WHY do the best people always get put on the same team, regardless of what team they are suppost to be on? Grandly, shouting an unidentifyable formation, they rush down the field in disarry, passing to their team, behind the back, between the legs, or off the head of the nearest opponent. After scoring a goal, the do a victory dance, after they score a goal, I think, "Their mothers must be so proud"

My Broken Body: Track. It seems that Darwinism has finaly seeped into track too. Becuase of the fact that there are around 60 people on our team, some people need to go. As track cant cut people, they have decided to get rid of them another way. Simply kill them. Killing them strait off with shotguns, lethal injections, or blows to the back of the head would be tacky, so the simply decide to run them into the ground. At least for distance. For sprinters they rely on drilling them into the ground. Poor Traffic cones.

Distance: 400m then hill lap (about 1600m). Load up ambulance, Repeat as needed. They made us run hills. the hill slopes up at a nice angle of FREAKIN 30 DEGREES. To make sure you just can't shuffle up the hill, they have layered what looks like monofiliment fish netting. You are running up a hill rushing to the top, and then suddenly, you stop, causing great stress to occur to your vital organs. You look down. A greenish hand of netting has covered your feet. You jump, freeing yourself of the netting, but, upon landing, get stuck again. Half of our distance team, including me, have some sort of leg injury. There is one guy on our team that is the best, he never gets injured, and goes faster when he leads then the speed of sound. You can't tell him to slow down beacuse sound only travels so fast. He doesn;t settle for being the best though, he is the best for a entire 15 seconds. That is insane. May the netting take him.

After all of that running, we had a thirty minute solid session of Pushups and Abs.

My Knee is small fry now. My ankles though are feeling as though I just ran for 2 hours straight. Wait, maybe thats just what I did.

I gotta go chug some more asprin.
Ben

PS IM not going to give up, if my heart bursts, I will look up at my coach, and wisper, "Tell my parents....(Cough) Tell my parents to sue you...

Saturday, My Knee, Sunday, and Homework

2006-03-12T20:54:00.000-05:00

Saturday. Really nice weather. Wanted to fly my stunt kite, but there wan't as much wind as on Friday. My knee felt better so I went and explored the creek near out house and got soaked. Played tekken 3 some. Just a Saturday.

Sunday: Went to Chapelgate because they have a new pastor. The sermon was nice. We went to Baltimore and went to the waterfront there for the Saint Patricks day parade. They had a huge Barns and Noble's bookstore in an old power plant. I twas really cool. Bought another Zits Comic book. I also got a white Mocha Frappachino at Starbucks. Dad bought around 7 pounds of fudge. That is just sickening sort of. It was pretty interesting, and by the end of it my knee was sore.

Now I have to do homework. Have a paper to corrct and some science homework. Not to worried about the science homework, I can fake it if I have too.

My Knee. Was feeling good staturday so I overused it and now its sore again. It may be from me growing so much. I am now taller than my dad even though eh wont admit it. Thankfully m not running that much tomorrow, We are doing the weight room and I probably can attend practice. I hope taht when I sleep it will get much better though.

Matt. Thanks for reading. Say Hi to Jordan for me. Also, about my new comp. Check out some of my more recent blogs.

Gotta do some homework!
Ben

Lack of Track, My Knee, and School

2006-03-10T20:03:00.000-05:00

School. Normal stuff. Have a test Tues in math. There are some pretty tricky questions dealing with log,ln, and e. Hope to do well on it though. I also had a test in Hist. I think I did very well, but, I may have misssed a couple with careless mistakes.

My Knee: Worse. This really sucks. We had an inter-Track event, but my knee was so stiff, I had no chance to make it in any of the sprints that we had to do. So, I rode the bus home, and wonderfully sqandered my free time. I really hope my knee gets better, because I really really like track, and I am good at it, so I hope the injury isn't serious and long lasting. I think, even though I really like track, I will wait a week, and if I have no reduction in pain or stiffness to a degree that it allows me to run, I think that I will quit track, and leave behind one of the first sports that I am/was good at. If I do though, It will allow me to continute working on my 0wnage chess skills. (Doubt me? Name the place.)

I wish I had more to say, but today has been really boring. I think I will listen to music for awhile, take an asprin, then Crash.

Ben

Ipod, Computer, Track, My Poor Knee, and Poptarts

2006-03-09T21:15:00.000-05:00

Ipod: This sort of ties in with the computer. As my Ipod shuffle was wiped by my sister (my sister evidences no intelligence at ALL on a regular basis) I have had to put all my songs and stuff back on it. This is harder than it appers. Due to a weird fluke, something has corrupted random songs in my 2.6 Gig libary and rendered them invisible. Yes, invisible is the term that they used. This, whenever I try to update my ipod, makes iTunes freeze. This had promped me to launch a new lobbing campain to get a new computer. I am looking at the iMac. Dad, has said, if we wait till the end of the month, we are getting close to buying it. This new computer will greatly increase my gaming capacity as well as other more mundane funtions.

Track. BRUTAL. Again. We had to run a 35 minute. This means you pretty much just run cross country for 35 mins strait at a 10 minute mile pace. This seriously either ruins your knees (IM GETTING THERE) or gives you shin splints (NO, thank goodness). After that, we did 50,50,50,50s. 50m of jogging, 50 of strides, 50 of sprints, and 50 of walking. This adds up to 200m and we had to do 3 laps, or six cycles. This brings me to my knee. After the 35 minute, my knee was feeling sore, but not really all that bad. After we did the 50,50,50,50s though, my left knee, and to a lesser extent, my right knee, were feeling if I had left them behind at the 200m start mark. I went to see the trainer, and he told me that it is probably nothing serious, but to take it easy, and to ice it if it starts hurting more. While I was in the trainers office, a girl that I knew came in, suffering from a lacrosse ball to the face. Nothing like that to put a, painful, but mericifully unvisible wound in its place.

Also. Science. Another obvious lab invovling the uneven heating and cooling of land and sea. It is really really hard to do soem good work with a letcher on your left, a unashamed flirt on your right, and one of the (supposedly) most hot girls in the school sitting at the lab table behind you. It wasn't so bad though, you seem to have alot of control over people when they know that you hold their lab grade in your hands. Idiots, all of them.

Poptarts. They are missing. This my seem funny, but it is not. While I was going to get my normal gatorade at lunch, I came back and found my friend with crumbs on his mouth, my poptarts missing, and a girl's (the same one that got hit later with the lacrosse ball, oddly enough, apple sauce and power bar in its place. The girl, a short and stocky 5' 2'' threated to shoot me if i touched her stuff again. Almost makes me believe in Karma.

ALSO: After practice, two of the guys in my locker room tied shirts around their hand, and, bare chested, beat themselves to a pulp. Rather funny, but it truly makes me wonder about the future of the human race.

A rather funky day, and TGIF tomorrow.

Ben

Track, Yesterday, Track, My Knee, and Macs

2006-03-07T21:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday: Rather blah day. Came home from track. Napped. Ate. TVed, Bedded.

Ah, Bed, parting is such sweet sorrow.

Today: School is school. Math is rather cool with logs and all. Love my calculator. Science was normal. Or, well, as normal as that class could be.

Track. BRUTAL. 1 mile warm up, strech, drills. Then, in rapid succession... 400, 800, 800, 400. Two perimiter laps (about another mile). Rest. Another two perimiters at a faster pace. Rest. Core was also bad. 2:45 minutes of planks. Choach said we have to be machochists to be in distance. By the end of some events, you just have to block out the pain. One thing is really freaking me out. My left knee is very sore. This may not sound like much, but in distance, this is really bad. I think, if my knee is still hurting tomorrow, I will go see the trainer and have him take a look at it. I hope it is just the shoes or my form or some other problem I can work out. Losing a race because someone is better than me, I can take. Losing a race because my body isn't working is something I can't. I don't want to burn out of track.

Macs: If you have not heard the good sense already, SLAP YOURSELF IN THE FACE WITH A DEAD BADGER AND SWICH TO MAC COMPUTERS. We are thinking of buying a new one and we are looking at the new Intel iMac. What's an Intel chip doing in a Mac? Its doing a whole lot more than it did in a PC. CHECK THIS OUT. BILL GATES MUST DIE

Ok, Im going to go to bed and pray that my knee isn't damaged.

Ben

Church, Track, and My Cousins

2006-03-05T21:39:00.000-05:00

We went to a new church today. Some sort of High Methodist stuff. Not that great. My old church was better (W00t to all of you!).

Track: Just joking. I didn't run today. Looking foward to trying out my new shoes though.

Cousins: Went to visit some of my cousins. Ate Lasagna. Played Mario Cart. Ate Brownies.

Good times

Cya.

I need sleep.
Ben

Saturday

2006-03-05T10:20:00.000-05:00

I had track practice at 9 on Saturday. I didn't quite make it one time, and so I had to sprint a 200m from the school to the runners as they just started their second lap. I caught up with them, and even If my shoes were untied, I was able to complete the laps. After the laps, we did our regular stretches and drills. Then, we did an evil thing known as the die drill. No the die in not death, its dice. We rolled a die and we would have to run whatever 4 rolls were time 100. If we rolled a 4, we had to run a 400 meter. We first rolled a 6,6,5,4,4 . As this was extremely bad, we said the dice were loaded and rolled again. That time we got a decent 1,2,2,4,5. After running those, we were pretty tired, so we walked a lap and then went inside to stretch out. After stretching out, our Coach, Mr B., opened the weight room, and I ran another mile on the treadmill and did sometime on the exercise bike. Dad picked me up and we went home.

After thirty minutes rest, I helped Dad split and pile wood for our fire. We brought in tons of wood, and should be good for the winter.

Then, we had lunch and I had a 3 hour nap.

I woke up, took and shower, and we headed down to Elicott City. There, I went to a sporting goods store, and picked out some new shoes, some underarmour, and a 100% cotton trainer shirt. I pitched in 2o dollars, and we were off.

We came home, I fixed myself my third PB&J. We watched a British Comedy and went to bed.

G2g to Church,

Ben

Track, Science, and Ikea (again)

2006-03-03T20:05:00.000-05:00

School: Nothing really exciting. Test in Health. Science was the monument to human stupidity that it usually is. The teacher evidenced confusion in reading a VERY simple map. This has further lowered the hope that I have in Humanity. And to think that the baby boomers are going to pass the ball to US. Hand a baby a gernade why don't ya? Math is all about logs. Pretty simple if you can remember a couple simple rules.

Track: Ran. Regualr 1 mile warmups, stretches, and the usual drills times 2. We then ran an 800 meter and I clocked in with the rather bad time of 4.17. I am posting my times is hope that someday I can look back on them and laugh at my stupidity, not for joining track, but for not joining track sooner. We also did several 150 meter strides at 80% to work on stuff like that. We also did some cone drills that involved excessive amounts of coordination and strenth. We then jogged inside to do our 30 minute core. This one wasn't too bad, it just was the normal stuff plus tons of stretching. There is a practice tomorrow on Sat from 9 to 1030. I kinda didn' t want to go, but by the soreness in my legs, I am getting stuff acomplished and want to just keep on doing it.

Ikea: After Track, we thought about going to Ikea to get my Dresser and my Bed. After not being able to locate the item numbers, we just came home and ate supper. We are going to go tomorrow, probably after track practice.

I am rather sore and tired. I am going to finish this blog and retire to bed somewhere around 830. Hope the extra times will help me get up tomorrow. Sat is the only day I get to sleep in, and I have grown fond of laying in bed until 12 or so. catches me up on the 1 hour of sleep I am lacking every day.

Also, as we are doing poems in English, I might randomly put up a poem if I get around to writing one. Hope I do, and yet I kinda hope I don't. We'll find out soon.

Gonna Shower and Crash,

Ben (aka Floridia)

Track, Track, Track, and Food

2006-03-02T18:07:00.000-05:00

Track: I know it sounds a little obsessive, but I think I may be posting about it alot. Something that leaves a constant reminder (read sore legs here) has to be posted. We started with a 1 mile run as usual, then went inside because it was wet and cold. We stretched out, and then did some drills. After that we went to the gym and got a lecture on safety and stuff. Soon after, we were set out and ran a 40 meter. I got 5.5 Seconds on that (really really fast). We also did a 400 meter and I got 80 seconds (really bad). I have an excuse though. Yesterday I had track practice too, and my legs were already sore. On top of that, my gym teacher, in PE worked my legs on the rowers and stationary bikes. So I was pretty sore and I still am. After all those tests we did Indian Runs (see my former post). After a brutal core workout of pushups, trunk lifts, situps, and other evil stuff, we were all tired and ready to go home. We ended at 4:40 and Dad picked my up by 5.

Ate a huge supper, I need food to fuel my muscles.

Now I am blogging. I have Seinfeild to watch, and some homework to do, but I think I will crash an hour early at 9 instead of 10. Quads are screaming so no DDR today. I might post again later if I think of something else to post about.

Hi to Matt Miller (may he ever headshot) and Bianca (I spelled that wrong and please dont kill me)

Ben

DDR, Track, Seinfeld, and Aches

2006-03-01T20:44:00.000-05:00

DDR: Steadily working my way through all the tracks. I find it not quite as good regarding to song selection compaired to DDR MAX. The pads are working good though, although they slip on the carpet. I usually play for around 1-2 hours a day, but that will change as I join track and my legs get abused on a regular basis.

Track: I have descovered Track. Its a sport that you don't have to try out for and you just run (or so I thought). Our first practice was today. After getting all the beurocratic details sorted out, we all jogged over to the track. Once we had formed up in two lines, we did a warm up mile at a nice steady pace. You could really tell who was fit and who wasn't by that run. After that we stretched out and lined up again. After doing walks on our toes and heels, we did some other warm ups. We then did some tests (Broad Jump, High Jump). We then did Indian Runs. You would get in a line with other people, and we would start running. The person in the last place in the line would sprint to the front and this cycle would continue. We ran a mile like this. After that, we did an evil routene called core workouts. Pushups, Situps, and trunk lift. Pure muscle, which, while I am a runner, white fast twich muscles are in short supply. This hurt, and I will be feeling it tomorrow!

Seinfeld: While I am not sure if I have spelled this right, I have becomed addited to it. It is really funny, even though a bit of the shows are somewhat unapproprate.

Aches: They are in my legs. My knees arn't all that stable, and with a turkey dinner, I will sleep becuase of that Tryptophan .

Night, my body needs time to recover.
Ben

School, Science, and Dad

2006-02-27T17:49:00.000-05:00

School. Normal stuff... Have homework in Math and forgot my Weekly reading in English (absolutly no clue that was coming). Science reached new levels of stupidity today. The class (while not the brightest of individuals) had to prove to the teacher that a picture in our textbook was a picture of a moon. My teacher thought it was a sun. This debate raged for a full 5 minutes and drove deep into our skulls one thing... Adults CAN be more stupid than they appear. Forutanaly, once she saw the light (of the Moon, DANGIT, not the sun) I was able to complete my English reading in Tale of Two Cities. She also kept some people back for not returning a question sheet that we had to copy. The response from Tina was, "You can't hold me Hostage! I'll call the police!!"

Dad. Shocking every one exept me, Dad has gone out and bought a 12 sample pack of cigars. It freaked most people out, but when you have to check your Dad's email, it is pretty easy to look for the digital receipts. He also doesn't know that you should clear your history AND your cookies when you want to keep something a secret. Adults should be afraid of teenagers. My dad has a PhD in Physics and he can't figure out how to find somethings in a menu. UG.

Finished my Book and it was very good. I suggest you check it out and don't smash it until at least AFTER you have read it.

I might post again. That depends if I feel up to playing DDR, if not, I probably will post to relieve some bordom.

Cya,
Ben

Ikea and the Ikea/Church

2006-02-26T11:22:00.000-05:00

Ikea: We went to Ikea to get my dressers, desk, and sofa bed. After wandering around buying various small items, we went up and looked at all the funriture. I found the sofa bed that I liked and was impressed. Simple, elegant, and comes in bright red. I also picked out a dark brown/black dresser and a red peanut shaped desk. We go down to the botom floor to pick up our items and we find that my dresser. The top of my desk, and the mattress of the bed that I wanted is out of stock. We got a diffrent matress (not as springy) and the legs for my desk. We are going back next Saturday or Earlier. So I am looking foward to it. Its kinda weird sleeping on a full size matress when you are used to a twin.

Church: The church that we went to was large, and add some paint and some letters, could be a smaller verson of the Ikea store. They had a lesson on how small we are compared to God and used space as an example. It was very interesting although the music wasn't really that great. Most of the songs seemed to be a little similar.

Today I have to clean my room. It is a mess after assembling my bed. I also want to get to my DDR. Some of the songs aren;t as good as DDR MAX but they are geting better as I unlock them.

Cya
Ben

The Concert and Whats Going to Hurt Tomorrow

2006-02-24T23:20:00.000-05:00

The Concert was cool: The music wasn't perfect by my standards (it was rock and I prefer electronica) but there were some good bands. All the half-friends that were there was pretty cool too. I enjoyed it and would do it again!

The Bad News: My Legs (DDR), arms (pushups), abs (sit ups), and throat (shouting) are going to hurt tomorrow. I may start doing pushups if i really am sore. I will know that I can get much buffer. But, the good news is, I just saved 15% on my car insurance by swiching to Geiko.

Ben

Concert and DDR

2006-02-24T19:18:00.000-05:00

I can't post long because I am going to a concert at my school. Local talent and all that jazz (or heavy metal... ugg). Good time to meet with people though.

DDR: Bought DDR Extreme with 2 dance pads on Monday and they came in today! My legs are sore after playing it for 2 hours! Can't wait to play it tomorrow!

Cya!

Ben

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

2006-02-24T14:57:00.000-05:00

Yesterday: Nothing happed much. Beat my PS2 game. Just need to beat it one expert one more time to have completely trashed it.

Today: School. Doing exponents in math. CPR in Health, WW II in History, and cool stuff in PE. I am the only kid that can keep up with the jocks even though i am not (and have not) done any sports. I, during a recent fitness test, did 75 laps on a Pacer Test putting me in the top 1/5 of my class. I also did 20 pushups, and most other kids did 10-15. Also I did 80 situps. That is pretty cool. I am going out for track so I suppose this is good.

Tomorrow: Going to get my Bed, desk, and dresser. Also going to a concert that some people in my school are putting on. Hope that is good.

Also: To all my friends reading this: Terry, Daniel, Dennis, or whoever. Thanks. I miss you alot.

Ben

Cousins, Lunch, PE, and PS2

2006-02-22T18:59:00.000-05:00

This blog may have to be cut short. My cousin Steven is coming over for dessert. He just got accepted into a colledge in DC. Pretty Cool. The worst part of this is that we had to clean house. The best is the fact that Mom is making brownies a la mode.

Lunch: Mass produced school lunches are rather interesting. You get to see the real sides of people without teacher interference (not that there arn't many around, you would think they don't trust us). For example: The Lunchline. The lunchline is a living organism made up of 30-50 humans. These humans are united for a common goal (grease and salt). There are some people that are the priviledged, being able to get to the front of the line fast. These people quickly form organisms called "tables" with companions of, usually the same gender, but this can vary. There are the unprivildged in the line. They, are stuck in the back. This is unfortunated because this greatly increases the time they are in the lunch line, because it grows in front of them. This is accomplished by the group known as "Parasite gangstas". They, in their mighty saggypantness ooze into the line, usually from establishing a converstation with a person in the middle of the line. The "oozing" can also be acomplished by standing near the door to the kitchen, and trying to duck in. The line lenthens this way. If you are a priviledged or a parasite, you can usually pick your table. Tables though are not big enought to hold one group. So the unpriviledged people have to spill over onto new tables, usually to horrible results.

PE. Home of the pacer test. A buzzer beeps, you run to a certain line 20 meters away. The buzzer beeps again, and if you arn't at that line, you are out. This gradually gets faster and faster until suddenly you fall to the floor, shrivel up like a cockroach, and die.

PS2: Working on beating Shattered Skies. Beaten it on all levels except hard. Almost done.

I have to go! Thanks again to whoever is reading this. You know who you are.

Ben

School, Track, and other Blah

2006-02-21T18:14:00.000-05:00

School is school. Classes that arn't really chalenging. I personally can get buy in anyclass even if I have not done the homework (comprehension wise, not grades) My math teacher doesn't check homework, just looks to see if we have numbers on the paper. Health is just tons of bookwork. History is remotly interesting but the teachers voice is an excellent sopoforic. Science is just bad. The teacher doesn't offer enought information to genuinely be considered "teaching: I could teach the class equaly well. PE is fun. I push myself to hard sometimes and get a cramp, but it is fun. English is good, but the topic we are discussing (the Tale of Two Cities) is rather tiresome. French is hot and slow. We never seem to get anything done.

I have also decided to go out for the track team. Medium range, Im too weak to be a sprinter, but to tired to be a cross country. DDR has served me well.

More Olympics tonight.

Hello to all my friends from school if you read this. Good luck to Daniel (not pink). He needs it and will know what I mean.

Ben

Uncle Bob's Cabin, My Room, and the Olympics

2006-02-19T23:17:00.000-05:00

Sorry I couldn't post for a while!

I was at my Uncle Bob's cabin for the weekend with my Uncles Jon, Ken, and Bob. It was the home of Superbown XL relived, beer, chips and salsa, and old Seinfield episodes. It was pretty fun. We went up there to see a chainsaw festival and there were twentysomething chainsaws going, carving out all sorts of rustic, cool, expensive stuff. This one guy made tons of mushrooms, and I wanted one, so I think I will end up making one myself.

My Room: Carpet is IN! My room is now liveable and almost fully funcional! I got my 2 bookshelves moved in and unpacked most, if not all, of my books. All my room is lacking now is a bright red sleeper sofa (this saturday) a new dresser (this sat) and a dest (this sat). I also think I will stock it with an ownage soundsystems (here .

The Olympics: testosterone, ice dancing, and punishing falls. Good time for family bonding.

ALSO!! Bought a new DDR pad and game set today as the movers (curse them) broke my old one. So! I will soon be reunited with my beloved DDR EXTREME.

And last but not least... EMILY: if you get this.. Gratz for looking at my blog. Tell the people at church too!

Cya
Ben

NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!!

Carpets, Wishing for Homework, and um..,

2006-02-16T14:56:00.000-05:00

Tommorrow! Tomorrow is the day that I am going to get my carpet installed. Pity I can't see it. I am going to Uncle Bobs cabin after school. Pity. But it will still be there when I come back.

Found a really cool website with lots of funny videos, You can find it here .

Thats about all for know, might post again later.
Ben

Stuff and other deep musings on life.

2006-02-15T19:13:00.000-05:00

First I found this really cool song on Itunes today. Its Massive Attack's Inertia Creeps. I had always thought that Massive Attack was a bit of a washout, they had lots of hooplah, but no real good songs to back it up. Inertia Creeps changed that. It sort of sounds like a cross between Blueman Group and someother natural sounding base group.

School is kinda weird, I wish for a big long essay and no other homework for the rest of the week and what do I get? I get busywork from everyone of my teachers. So after I am finished blogging, I am going to bust my butt doing homework.

Finished backing up my 2.62 gigs of music today. We have a large Lacie drive, and it was simply drag and drop. If anyone that reads this has any trouble with their comp, as long as it is not a hardcore code problem I can help.

Have to do homework, hope I don't fall asleep.

Ben

Snow, Logsplitting, and other fun Stuff

2006-02-11T23:40:00.000-05:00

Ok, as I write this, there is 12 inches of snow on the ground. This is very cool. This is more snow than i ever have seen at one time. This snow, though, came at a cost. We had to take a chopped down poplar tree and split it up for firewood. This wasn't really that hard, just rather tedious. The real fun started when I started to flag becuase of a blister on my hand (Its a big one) and Dad had the bright idea to bring the truck around and we would load it up with lumber so I wouldn't have to lug innumberable load to the fire pile. We finished loading all the wood onto the truck and proceeded to go back up the hill. This was not a good idea. Dad's truck, accumulated to the sand and sea of Flordia, got stuck in the mud. We had to use the winch to haul Dad's Truck back up, During this process I ripped my jacket that I had gotten for Christmas. That really sucked. We finished unloading all of our lumber (we did have to use a wheelbarrow after all) and went inside. After drying off, mom cooked us a meal of Torrtelinni.

Today...

I woke up, we are not going to church because of the snow and I am going sledding! w00t!

Sickness, SOCOM II, and School

2006-02-09T21:18:00.000-05:00

Arg. I hate being sick. I woke up Thursday with a sore throat. That abated slowly over Wednesday but by Thrusday I have a stuffy nose and a slight chough. Thank goodness that we had a half day of school Today and we have tomorrow off. I get to stay home and play SOCOM. I have found a really cool guide (http://guides.ign.com/guides/552397/page_9.html) and I seem to be able to play my way throughout the game.

Im too sick to type,

Ben

3.5 Days in 10 Min

2006-02-07T15:21:00.000-05:00

Saturday: Internet is down. We are working on organizing cables.

Sunday: Dad's back hurt, didn't go to church. We messed around and waited for the Super Bowl. Steelers 21 Seahawks 10. W00t. And just for the record, the contriversial touchdown was real. Steelers own.

Monday: School. Dang I miss CHS. My science class is terrible. Its the only class that I have ever known that insults are actually directed at the teacher DURING class.

Tuesday: School, got a B on a math test. PE was pretty good. He sort of got mad at us when alot of us didn;t have heartrates over 150. Mine was 140 both times he checked it and he said that I am in pretty good shape. Thats cool. Thanks to DDR.

Mabey more later today.

P.S. Check out my hopefull canidated for new speakers
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch.hmx?SCriteria=3533565&CartID=done&nextloc=

Day at School

2006-02-03T16:26:00.000-05:00

Slept in late today. Got up 30 later unfortunatly. Had to skip my shower. I never realized how much my shower makes me wake up! School was ok. Math test. Nothing hard. Finished watching Supersize ME in health. History had a simple multiple choice test. Took me about 7 minutes. Watched a clip on Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Rather interesting actually. PE, contrary to my expectations was a bust. Had to take TWO tests. So basicly we sat on our butts when we ( or at least I) wanted to be running around. Got to play wallball for a bit though, so it wasn't too bad. Lunch was insane, free ice cream for all the honor roll peoples. I was one in my old school, but I still had to buy myself icecream. That was 50 cents, I could have bought a ticket for the honor roll ice cream for a dollar. Such is the power of money. We had SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) in English. It was really hot in there and people kept on falling asleep. Or mabye that was just the Tale of Two Cities. French was even hotter and the people were dropping like flies. Rather funny actually. Then we got to go home. TGIF.

Later

Ben

First Blog

2006-02-02T15:17:00.000-05:00

First Blog,,,

Ok, basicly this is about, me, my life, and anyother junk i deem worthy to remember and stick in my blog.

Second, I dont give anything about the way I speel stuuf. If you don't like it you can leave.

Third, I miss all of my friends in FL and CHS! You know who you are.

and, number last, Enjoy!