Bored...

I haven't posted in a really long time. I decided to catch up today since I am completely bored right now.

First off, congrats to the Steelers! I didn't really think that the Steelers would make it to the Superbowl this year. As the season went on, I saw how the sports writers were all dead wrong. I laughed the other day as I was reading through old Plain Dealer sports pages and saw that the Browns were projected to clinch the AFC East division over the Steelers. I would say that based off of the preseason predictions, the Browns were the most underwhelming team during the regular season. Anyway, I got to watch the Superbowl while I was on vacation in Tennessee. It was weird, because we were the only Steelers fans in the restaurant, but we were most definitely the loudest. It was fun. I have to admit, I was a little nervous when Larry Fitzgerald scored that last touchdown. I even told my mom that I was going to go back up to the hotel room to watch the rest of the game. (I know, I am a bad fan...I was just too nervous to be down there with all of those Cards fans!) But then, Santonio Holmes and Ben Roethlisberger fulfilled the first half of my perfect year...that touchdown drive was one of the best I have ever seen. Now, the Cavs just have to win the NBA Championship, and I will have had the most amazing year of my life!

Speaking of the Cavs, the team is 47-12, first in the Eastern Conference, about to clinch the Central Division, and has the same amount of losses as the Lakers. WOW! I know everyone else is saying wow because they can't believe that I haven't blogged about this yet. Word just came in that Joe Smith is re-signing with the Cavs tomorrow. Hopefully Joe can help fill Ben Wallace's spot while he heals from a broken leg. I don't want to get my hopes up too high, but I really think that this team can win in the playoffs bigtime. We are all set for the number one seed in the East, and I think that whoever we play in the East, we can beat...soundly. Not only do I love this team because they win ;), I love the team chemistry and how all the players seem to be really decent guys. Even if they weren't "my" team, I think that I would still cheer for them.

I will be sending in my application to the Honors Program at Liberty by Thursday. Hopefully, I get in. I already applied to Grove City, but don't hear back from them until the 15th. (of March, that is.)

And now, there are only 8 days until my 18th birthday! How crazy is that? It's really surreal. I guess I always expect to feel older or different on my birthday, but I never do. The thing about turning 18 is that I think I should be acting more like an adult, which probably won't happen. My parents probably wish that I would.

I think that is it for now. I just wanted to update when I saw that I hadn't blogged for 6 months! Next time, I will update with a post about ideas, not events. But I can't count out my sports segment. Too many good things are happening! (never thought I would say that!)

I am bad at keeping promises...

So, I promised to blog weeks ago. I guess today is really the first day I have had any free time AND thought about blogging in the least bit. I am sitting in the lobby of Lakeland Community College. I have Spanish I in about an hour, so I thought that I would sit down and blog on my new laptop with wireless. It is really cool to have wireless, by the way.

So first, I should go over my school schedule for this year. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I take Spanish I and Trig here at Lakeland. I have Latin II online on Tuesdays, and Church History online on Wednesdays. I am also continuing with Worldview- finishing Calvin's Institutes within the next week. I dropped Great Books IV this year, since it was practically identical to my Worldview course. I am taking a C.S. Lewis class, Accounting, Music, and Anatomy at co-op. And my fun course is the Lord of the Rings Lit. Analysis. For now, I think that's it. I am most likely not debating this year, but I will do at least two speech events.

Secondly, my soccer team is doing really well this year. We won our first two games, and since there are only four teams in our division, it's safe to say that we are easily the best team. I like my teammates a lot more after playing with them. It seems I always have bad first impressions of people, and then end up liking them a lot. I started reffing again, which is good because I had no way of making money for awhile.

Thirdly, The Dark Knight was amazing! I saw it opening night, and again about two weeks ago. This movie combines all the essential qualities of character development, mind blowing action scenes, and emotional triggers. The Joker was seriously the best villain I have ever seen! It is kind of easy to see how Heath Ledger died, now that I have seen the movie. To be immersed in the character of the Joker for a year or so would be very depressing. No wonder he couldn't sleep at night. What makes the Joker interesting is that he isn't the typical villain. He has no motivation for the things he does, except that he wants to "watch the world burn." (in the words of Alfred) He would be content fighting Batman for eternity, just to watch the chaos that arises from the struggle. Christian Bale was once again amazing as Batman. He really should get more praise for the work that he does. Now he is in Heath Ledger's shadow, so he doesn't get much recognition for his performance. The one thing that I would change about the movie is the girl they chose for Rachel. (The girl was not a great actress, and was not very pretty either- which doesn't usually matter to me, except that this is Bruce Wayne's love interest we are talking about! She has to be beautiful!) I loved the moral dillemas presented in this film, and can't wait for the next movie!

This blog is getting kind of long, so I will save Mission Trip and Spring Hill comments for another day.

But I do have to mention the Cavs/LeBron/The Olympics. The Cavs traded Joe Smith and Damon Jones for Mo Williams from the Milwaukee Bucks. This was a good trade and finally gets Cleveland a decent point guard. Also, the U.S. Men's Basketball team won the Gold thanks to LeBron, Dwayne Wade, and Kobe Bryant. I was really excited to see LeBron get his first Gold medal. Also, Michael Phelps and the U.S. swim team were amazing! It was so cool to watch Phelps win race after race, and finally get 8 Gold medals!

That is all for now, and I promise that will get to my other summer exploits in the near future.

The Dark Knight!

I am so excited for the Dark Knight! I have been waiting so long that I can't really remember when I started counting down days. Will blog tomorrow about the amazing-ness of this movie.

This is embarassing...

I haven't blogged since May! Oh well. I can only catch up now.

I just got back from a trip to Gettysburg. My whole family went with my brother's boyscout troop. It was very interesting, since I didn't get to see much last time due to the torrent of rain. This trip kind of awakened me to the horrific reality of war- especially Napoleonic warfare. Which is-for those who don't know the term- walking in straight lines, shoulder to shoulder, and shooting at eachother. It's a shame that a sense of honor back then convinced these men that any other type of fighting was cowardly. So many deaths could have been prevented if they had thought of a different strategy. Anyway, I still can't justify the reasoning behind Pickett's Charge, which was a charge across an open field straight into enemy fire/artillery. But, I guess I am glad that armies don't do the same thing today.

I also went to a mock legislative camp at Patrick Henry College about two weeks ago. I learned Parliamentary Procedure (how to speak or make a motion in Congress) and a lot of other things. In a week, we experienced a microcosm of the House of Representatives, national disaster, and a Presidential campaign. Also, we went to Washington D.C. to watch the Fireworks on the Fourth of July. That was truly amazing.

Other events of note...The new Relient K cd came out. I haven't listened to the whole thing, but there are some great songs so far.

I got House M.D. season one from the library. My mom, Cassidy, and I are really enjoying it.

My blog is due for a redesign...I will think of something.

The Dark Knight is out in 3 days! Wahoo for midnight showings!

I am off to Cincinnatti next week for a mission trip. I might be able to squeeze in a blog before I leave for SpringHill- which is the week after that.

Tons of stuff can happen in less than a week!

I have time for a quick post before class. A few things have happened in the world that are interesting to either cheer or vent about.

1) The new Dark Knight trailer came out. Here is a link: http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com/ If that doesn't work for you, try yahoo.com in the movies section. This is a really cool trailer that gives a little more footage of The Joker. Very cool. (and as a side note, there is also a new Indy 4 trailer. This trailer is also great.)

2) Obama won NC, and Clinton won IN. I don't really know what to make of this. Will Hillary drop out, stay in, or suck up to Obama in hopes for a vice presidential run? Personally, I think that Obama and Hillary hate eachother's guts. But with the Clintons, you can never know the future.

3) The Cavs did obliterate the Wizards like I knew they would. Wally Szczerbiak is once again my hero.

4) The Cavs lost the first game to Boston. I really don't understand basketball strategy completely yet, so I can't comment too much on this game. Both teams played great defense and pretty abysmal offense. Please, let's move on to Game 2 so I don't have to recap the gory details of the loss.

5) I am nearly finished with Physics, and hope to complete before the weekend is over.

For now, that is it. I have to get to Great Books Class. Only one more week of online classes!

Whoops!

I didn't ever post the tournament results like I promised. Sorry.

So, to catch up, Megan and I went 5-1 in the preliminary rounds at the Bay Village tournament. We found out that we were actually in a semi-final round vs. Paul Miller and Rachel Shoff, who are two really nice people from our club. Neither Megan, Rachel, Paul, or me thought that we were doing well enough to be in the semifinals. Paul and Rachel beat us making our record 5-2. We didn't really have any evidence, and that was our downfall. Their case is a comparative advantage case which is really hard to defend against, because it acknowledges that the status quo is doing well, but could be improved upon. I am currently getting some evidence in case we have to go against them at Cedarville. My speech events were kind of mediocre this time. I am going to practice a lot more next week. But debate was so surprising. 3 Cleveland teams were in the semifinals. We totally dominated. And the fact that Megan and I are novices this year blew everyone away. We beat Joe Griffith and Elliot Gaiser, who are one of the best debate teams in CCA. But, I am trying not to get ahead of myself. We still have one more tournament to go.

Yesterday was my Dad's birthday, so we are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate. And the Cavs are going to obliterate the Wizards tonight at 7:00. We'll see how it goes.

Uh..I forgot a picture of the week. Hold on...here we go.

1. Aragorn and Gandalf...duh!

2. Probably my favorite Lord of the Rings photo. Completely captures the character of Aragorn.

Disappointed...

Why is it that every time I have get to watch the FULL Cavs playoff game, they lose?!?!?!? Tonight was so disappointing. But let's please get this straight. Tonight's loss was in no way, shape, or form Coach Mike Brown's fault. He did absolutely nothing wrong that caused major game problems. A lot of people are claiming he is a bad coach. Not true. Simply false. I can't be emphatic enough on this point. Things the Cavs need to fix.:

1) Stop Anderson Varejao from taking stupid drives to the basket that he knows he can NEVER score off of. That is not what AV is for.
2) Cut down on the turnovers. Don't be lazy with passes, make sure you make easy layups (sorry Wally, I just had to mention that), and concentrate while dribbling.
3) Make LeBron drive more. He was never a top-notch outside shooter. LeBron, you don't have to be afraid. You are WAY bigger than those guys. Good job on the Free Throws, though.
4) Stop Caron Butler. Foul him hard when he tries to drive.
5) Smash DeShawn Stevonson when he starts acting like a jerk.
6) Make sure all of the point guards/forwards make their jumpshots. In other words, make the Field Goal % go way up.

That is it for now.