Summer

Summer is calling! I can finally hear it, and its voice sounds oh so good. I just can't wait for those two and a half weeks of freedom....and then....

GSP!!! Gosh I am sooo excited about this! I can't wait to find out what college I am going to. Once there, it's going to be so fun living the life of a college student, only a lot more fun. All of the websites and information from their sponsors makes it seem like it will be a blast, and all of the seniors last year said that it was one of the most fun experiences of their lives. I only hope that I have nearly as much fun as they seemed to have had, and I'm pretty sure I will, haha.

After GSP, I'll have about ten days to rest before school starts back up again, and believe me, I'm going to need all of it after the energy I will have exhausted the previous five weeks. But why am I thinking about schoooooool, I have two weeks left!

Signing off on the last blog is going to be so emotional! Haha.

Dakota

New Things

Getting new things is always fun. Getting new things that you have desired and waited for for a long time is even more fun. On this regard, my family has just gotten a new internet service that allows us to do many more things at home than our old, slow, satellite internet of before. We had the satellite internet for about two years, and for the first two months, we thought, wow, this is really fast compared to dial-up. But then, as we realized how quickly other technological things were advancing around us, we realized that satellite just wasn't going to cut it.

The new internet is freakin' amazing. It's so fast and gets us wherever we need to go on the web in a quick and efficient manner. Also, I can finally get on Xbox Live at my mom's. =) The weird thing is, we had originally signed up for an internet even faster than what we got, but once the men came out to install the equipment, we found out that we couldn't receive the highest tier where we lived because all of the trees obstructed the best results, so we ended up getting the middle-grade. Luckily, it still rocks!

Dakota

End of the Year

Back to school...yay, I get to see everyone again....oh wait, school sucks otherwise. Can't wait until fall break....we still have another half of a year!....prom is still four months away.....and now there is only one week left of school. The journey was rough and tiresome, but junior year, looking in reflection, was a shorter ride than it seemed. I mean, honestly, it seems like I was going to Sadie Hawkins two weeks ago.

I wouldn't really care all that much about this fact excepthat I have only one more year of high school left before becoming an adult. These first twelve years of school really have gone by faster than I ever would have imagined as a yearning third grader. If I had the chance, I would do some things differently, would remember different things, but I wouldn't change the overall outcome for anything. My life thus far has been a blessing and a treasure to live, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

The vagueness of this blog is getting to me...but I don't know what to reflect on...It's been a fun and learning experience the whole way (I guess is what I am trying to say).

Dakota

Food and Sleep Deprivation

Going through life is tough. Believe me, I'm the stereotypical teenager who knows that everyone's lives revolve around me and that if anything is out of whack it's a dramatic tragedy. I've got one for you though - try going through life without food or sleep. My thoughts on the matter are that you would most likely perish rather quickly, and you wouldn't have much to whine about.

I'm not much on whining myself, but I sometimes deprive myself of both of these necessities for days. I don't blame anyone but myself, but during school or work when I can only think of sleeping (usually I don't think much about food), I get upset with myself for having stayed up to late and gotten up too early the night before. Reasons for my sleep deprivation include, but are not limited to excessive fun, talking to friends, homework, homework, talking to friends, homework, chatting it up with my friends, and homework. Reasons for not eating include falling asleep when I get home from lack of sleep and not eating dinner...it's a vicious cycle, as evident.

I know I have a problem, and I should probably try to curb it...but as I sit here thinking about why I wait so long to post my blog drafts, I realize that these are contributing to this bad cycle. If I would simply post my drafts when I finish them instead of waiting until the end of the month, I wouldn't have to remember to post them all the time nor would I waste the time posting them all at the same time while I could be doing other things (SLEEPING!).

Dakota

Prom

Prom is coming up this Saturday. Am I excited you ask? My response: might as well be, I just spent $200 dollars for one night, haha. Honestly, dances aren’t really my thing and up until last week, I didn’t think I was going. Then I decided to give in to peer pressure and go anyway. Because I waited so long, however, everything I had to do was rushed. Between work and school and other engagements, I had to find time to order a tux and shoes and flowers. But I got it done and I’m just ready to go to the Riverpark and enjoy myself now (hoping the 200 bucks will be worth it).

As far as having a fun time goes, I don't think I'll have any problems...my friends are pretty much the greatest at keeping me happy and upbeat, even in situations less than desirable. And it's gotta be exciting, right? I mean the prom committee has been planning this since January...hopefully they did a good job. And through writing this I have realized that this has become one of my major ramble posts...I didn't think it would happen!

For everyone, pray there is no bad weather! The wretched weatherman is forecasting it, but it's a night of elegance! We can't have rain and storms then!

Dakota

KOM Training

KOM training was today. To say the least, I am glad I decided to become a freshman mentor. I had so much fun with all the activities we did today. First, hats off to Mr. Lee, he was pretty great at getting us motivated and ready to stuff. Second, I say thank you to Mrs. Conkwright for making this all happen.

Now on to the details!

First, Mr. Lee had all of the KOM's fill out bingo cards with other people's names who fit the criteria in each box. The objective was to get to know more people (and get 3 bingos) I ended up 88th out of a little over a hundred....I was quite ashamed of myself, but oh well haha. Then we played the game Mr. Lee called the "High School" game, where people must bunch up in groups of how ever many people Mr. Lee called out, and if you were left out of a group when he blew the whistle, you lost and had to stand away from the rest of the action. I did pretty well in that I suppose.

Then we had story time!

After story time, we began learning a really cool dance. This and the "High School" game were my favorite activities. The order of events blur in my memory from here, but there was a hand slapping game that involved the calling out and remembering of other people's names, and some paper work that wasn't as fun, but didn't really detract from the day in general. Overall, I had a great time, and I hope my freshman benefit because of my effort today at training. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION FOR MY FRESHMEN!

Dakota

Spring Break Numero Dos

So this post is pretty much a summary of my spring break, which I blogged about earlier.

First I went to my dad's house, where I soon realized that I was going to be doing a little manual labor to start off my week of relaxation. Yes, dad finally bought the house in Indy and we started moving our furniture in the garage up there. I got to ride up in the big moving truck which was pretty cool.

I got to my new house and was astonished...it was huge! Outside of my uncle's house (a doctor), this was the biggest house I had ever been in. It was really pretty too and I couldn't have asked for a better exterior. The foliage was perfect and it was right on a lake.

Anyway, once we finished moving all of the furniture from the truck to the house, I finally got to start relaxing. I pretty much had to veg out as we didn't have any food except for the snacks we packed for the ride up. Me and dad immediately hooked up the 55" downstairs and tapped into the analog channels (actually, we watched the NCAA men's basketball championship off of them).

I visited colleges, as I said earlier, and I was thoroughly convinced that Purdue sucked and that IU was my dream school!

Tornado warnings were out that Wednesday in our area. Fun night.

On Thursday, my dad and I headed for Lexington and stayed in a hotel there for my campus visit to UK the next day.

Then Friday, I came back to my real home and life was good....except that spring break was over. Oh well, satisfactory is the grade I would give it. Much was accomplished.

Dakota

Youtube

What more is there to say, honestly? Youtube is about the greatest website known to man. It’s one of my most visited websites (after Facebook) because, let’s face it, you can find virtually anything you’re “looking” for there. If you want funny videos, clips from real-life movies, maybe even a lesson on that song you just can’t quite get on the guitar, Youtube is your man/website. I honestly think I have probably watched about every kind of video on Youtube, and fail to be bored by the sheer number of videos available or the fact that the service is absolutely free! Seriously, where else does one find this kind of opportunity?

And it's not just other people's videos! You yourself can set up an account in about five minutes and instantly begin taping vids for all the world to see! I still have yet to do so but I definitely will soon. I don't know, I just felt like blogging about one of the greatest innovations in Internet technology ever!

To the makers of Youtube, thank “You!”

Dakota

Failing (Epic Fail?) (It's Over 9000!) (Insert Other Often Said Thing Here)

Self-regarded as a good student (not conceited, honest), I don’t take it very well when I receive less than desirable grades on school assignments, which again, isn’t very often. One of the worst feelings is when that grade is the sixth letter of the alphabet. The ominous F – the failure, frick, and other unrepeatable words word. If you thought you did well, the feeling of the F-bomb isn’t as traumatic because it’s a sudden bad emotion after a longer period of good ones. If you thought you sucked it up, the feelings are worse because you know you’re going to get a bad score but there’s nothing you can do about it.

The latter feeling is the one that I currently feel about the math test I just took. I’ve always gotten A’s on all the other tests in that class this year, but this test, my mind performed an effective meltdown. About every answer I got was wrong, and though I struggled more on this unit, I thought I had finally grasped the material. Boy was I wrong. During the middle of the test I was silently reprimanding myself for sucking so bad. It was bad. But oh well, hopefully there are more grades during the review period.

Dakota

Spring Break

Spring break just cannot get here fast enough for me. School has been in session for way too long now and I am just ready to get out and relax. I just want to be able to sleep in go to sleep late and not worry about anything…

Oh wait, I don’t get a spring break. Not really. No, I have to go up to Indianapolis with my dad for college visits. Because my mom works every day and can’t take off to take me to the colleges, my dad has to, and because he starts work on Tuesday in Indy, I have to go up there with him. I have college visits on the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of spring break week. The time between visits will be spent sitting in a hotel while my dad does his business (literally). How boring.

But oh well. I guess what I am doing is better than what some could be doing…nothing’s coming to mind, but I’m sure there are worse things. Can’t wait.

Dakota

UK: A Disappointment

It’s the times that I put my confidence in a team that goes 0-17 from 3-point land that I feel I was born in the wrong state. My family has always been full of staunch UK fans, and I have become one as well. But when an Elite 8 team cannot sink a single three pointer in seventeen attempts, I begin to question the greatness of my beloved Cats.

The fact that we went about 10% from the three in the tournament is astounding, but what aggravates me more is that they still attempted them, contested or not, after missing ten in a row. Obviously we have a size advantage in the post against any team with DeMarcus Cousins and Daniel Orton. Why are our guards hoisting up the long ball when they can’t drain it? Just feed it to the big man.

They say defense wins championships. I think this comes with the assumption that some points are scored on offensive possessions. When we screw ourselves out of a potential 51 points because of selfish three point shooting, it’s hard to blame the defense for losing the game for us.

Coach Cal, it looks like you’re going to have to coach these stars you recruit, not just let them survive on their own raw talent. Because it is very raw.

Dakota

Spring

So I got my first mosquito bite last night while biking with Joseph Powers. You know what this means? My least favorite season has finally returned. Oh, it’s been a while my pleasantly warm but unpleasantly bug-bringing friend. I love the temperatures; I hate the bugs. Strike that, I hate the bugs that hate me. I’m sort of a girlie boy in this regard, but any bug that has a stinger or has the potential to hurt me is my sworn enemy. Bees, wasps, spiders – I’m scared of every one of them.

It really is weird, though. One of my favorite things to do is camp. I don’t know, just getting out into the woods and living semi-all-natural with the Off spray lathered on and sitting around the campfire singing those campfire songs (J) just gets me every time.

Back to spring though, I literally will not open my windows in my room for fear of wasps slipping through the seal and flying around with their lazy legs eyeing me the whole time. I believe I might just have a phobia of these little buggers (no pun intended). Why can’t we just skip straight over spring and go right into summer!?

Dakota

Academic Team Over

The season for academic team has come and gone, and I think I’m going to miss it. All of the time spent practicing and…..studying…..has really gotten to me. We didn’t make it to state in quick recall for governor’s cup and I feel like the job is not yet done. We haven’t completed what we set out to do as first year upperclassmen. This one was finally going to be the year that we got to state by putting the hurt on our region, but it wasn’t so.

So now it’s necessary to wait until next year, study my butt off over the off-season. Most might think that studying over summer break is ludicrous. I think I have to agree with this most person. But when I destroy in science in quick recall, they’ll be chanting my name in the crowd (silently of course). Oh yea, it’s going to be a good day in the neighborhood when the team rejoins next year!

Dakota

GSP Anticipation

So I must say, GSP anticipation is about to drive me insane. Those who applied for this great opportunity did so almost three months ago, and we won’t find out for almost another one. I just really want to know if I made it or not, not only just for the sake of knowing, but also the fact that I need to schedule my summer events accordingly. And not knowing whether I’m going to be free for five weeks in a row or not is kind of a big deal.

It sure would be great if I were accepted. I’m sure the program is really fun and interesting and I will have an awesome time learning and meeting other people. But the major benefit of going to the program has kind of fallen away from me. I was originally going to get full-tuition to UK, but my plans have changed since I applied. Now I am about 95% sure that I’m going to Indiana University, where this program does not aid me at all.

I know it looks good on your applications and stuff to any college, but I’ve been asking myself of late if I still want to go through with a five week program that’s taken out of my last summer break as a high school student just for the sake of going.

Dakota

Pests

There aren’t many things in this world that just generally grind my gears. That said, I don’t like insects very much. But most insects themselves have biological purposes in the ecosystems they inhabit. The pests of the group that have no biological purpose are the ones that I don’t like at all.

These nuisances include but are not limited to mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks. More or less, these insects are parasitic without a general niche other than to stay alive. They do nothing helpful for their ecosystems and generally only benefit themselves.

My question is, “What is their purpose in life?” I mean honestly, they just seem to be little life-suckers that help no one but themselves.

P.S. One could probably tell by this point that this blog is very random and also rather pointless. You may be asking the same question posed earlier toward this blog post…

Dakota

Awakeness

Staying up late and getting up early has adverse effects on both sleepiness and health. It makes me want to never get out of bed in the morning and fall asleep as soon as I get home from school of a day. Deprivation of sleep makes everything harder in general. Why then, do I willingly give up sleep? The answer is simple. I am a teenager.

I’ve stayed up until the early hours of the morning talking to my friends, doing homework, procrastinating on homework, playing games, among other things. It used to not be this way. During middle school I would do my homework as soon as I got home, do all my other daily things and be asleep by 10:00. But then freshman year rolled around and it all began to change. I started becoming a homework lazy, friend chatty, and just overall time wasting kid. That fact has only manifested itself more since I’ve moved up the ranks of high schooldom.

And you know what? It’s cool, because I always get what I need to get done, done. Maybe it’s at the cost of my awakeness, but hey, if the shoe fits…wait, that cliché doesn’t “fit” here…anyway, sort of loopy right now, so I’m going to call it a blog and a night.

Dakota

Forgetting to Post My Blogs

I have a problem. I know this, and admittance is the first step to recovery. My problem? I never can remember to post my blogs until it’s almost too late. It isn’t that I haven’t written them, I just don’t like posting them until the deadline so hopefully people won’t have to waste their time reading them, haha. But this is bad for me when I forget about them, as I have almost done tonight. I usually end up doing something more interesting or time-consuming, as I have also done tonight, and forget all about my lonely little blogs, sitting in my computer’s memory waiting to be put on the Internet for everyone to see.

Also, as is probably evident by now, I have forgotten to write my last blog, and so have decided to make this one about the fact that I am so forgetful about things of this nature. Maybe if I just decided to post my blogs, I wouldn’t have this problem… maybe if I would just remember, I wouldn’t have this problem. I think I prefer the latter. =)

Dakota

Olympics Blog

So the 2010 Winter Olympics have been going on as of late, as all of you probably already know. I won’t talk about all of the athletes and medalists and things like that in this blog. I’d rather like to focus my attention on the devotion of said athletes.

First off, most of them are professionals in their area. They are used to being paid for doing their dream jobs. As Olympians, they are playing simply for national fame and glory. They are taking a leave of absence from their daily work to represent their respective countries in their sport. And for this I applaud them. They don’t have to do what they are doing, but they are risking their body and reputation for the honor of their fellow countrymen.

Some of these athletes have devoted their whole lives to the sport they are playing in hopes of being in the position they are currently in, playing on the biggest stage on Earth, the Olympics. It’s simply incredible how much time and effort these people are putting into their respective fields to be the best, knowing they are going up against the toughest competition in the world.

On a side note, though I said I wouldn’t talk about medals, USA is in the lead in medal count! =)))

Dakota

Finally Found a Job!

I’ve been out of a job for a while. In fact, I’ve been looking since I quit working at Holiday World freshman year. Well I’ve finally been offered a job at taco bell! I (and my parents) are of course overjoyed that I’ve gotten a job, especially in these economic times.

The day I was offered a job, I was sitting in Mr. Paff’s room waiting for FPS practice to start. Joseph Powers comes in and asks me if I want to go to Taco Bell with him. I told him I didn’t have any money to buy anything, and he told me that he was going because of open interviews, not to buy anything. Having my keen eye for chances, I go with him. When we get there, we fill out applications and general information and immediately get interviewed. My interview was really short, so I knew I was either immediately written off or seriously considered. Apparently, it was the latter. An hour and a half later, I got a call saying I was hired at the Taco Bell on Parrish. Needless to say I was ecstatic.

Now all there is to do is wait for my interview and then I’ll be getting that cash flow!!!

Dakota

Regionals Governor's Cup

Today, Apollo hosted our region’s Governor’s Cup competition. Let’s cut to the chase.

The test takers that made it to state from Apollo were Jacob Merimee in math, Joseph Powers in arts and humanities, Katherine Powers in language arts, and Loren Whiting in composition. Congratulations guys, and good luck at state!

Quick recall placed fourth, losing to Grayson County and Edmonson County. It was upsetting for us – we thought we were finally going to make it to state this time… but at least we beat Owensboro (in a barn-burner). Grayson placed first, Edmonson second, and Frederick Fraize third.

FPS was screwed over, plain and simple. Every one of the judges graded our booklet as third or better, two even giving us a first-place vote. Every one, that is, except for Mr./Ms. Ignorant. Yes, the last judge graded our underlying problem and said we had a dual purpose (not allowed), which we didn’t, and went on to give us the lowest grade possible on the next section because it answers the underlying problem. This score merited a fifth place vote. Overall, we and another team were tied for second place, but for some reason, still unbeknownst to us, they were awarded second and us third, keeping us from going to state. We even had more first place votes than them… and the sad thing is, if there was more team in the regional pool, and we had gotten sixth place, it would have been counted as an outlier and our score would have been recalculated without it… but oh well, better luck next year I guess.

Dakota