/ Side Salad /

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

so here I am in the library... I came to sleep, I am so terribly exhausted after the first three periods of the day - especially in Fendley's Class O' Fun where we spent ten minutes plugging in different values to manipulate the parametric graph on our calculators... yay math. It's too hard to sleep, I should have brought a pillow. The guy to my right got a crazed look on his face when he observed me trying to get in a comfortable sleeping position. I'm sure other people would notice me if I fell asleep, this section of the library is full - I would probably be subject to all manner of torture... second period today, the Master of Muffins brought a banana wrapped in wax paper... and opened it when Borghoff was "playing history." It was so loud when he tried unraveling the main course of the feast that day... everyone in the class heard and tried ever so much not to laugh but failed miserably... thankfully I got it under audible control...

Hopefully dodgeball will be a definite option in gym next period... I need something to wake me up...

Labels: sleep

10:44 AM

Sunday, February 24, 2008

I understand that it is dangerous to extract "wisdom" from certain books other than the Bible to add to one's philosophy; it has been especially said for the Star Wars franchise, because of the eastern religion being taught - yet I could not help but understand more of myself in relation to God by reading "Traitor" which is the, oh I don't know, tenth book in the series Star Wars: The New Jedi Order. The whole book is about Jacen Solo and his journey to find out more about himself, and truths in embracing "the Force" as a Jedi. It wasn't so much Jacen's teaching that "enlightened" me, but the teaching of Jacen's impromptu (this could take more explaining than I want) master Vergere. okay so maybe I can't right now think of the concrete connection between Christianity and Star Wars that I was thinking about earlier... a lightbulb sort of clicked on in my head in Jacen's whole pondering of what is the dark side and what is a Jedi and on and on... and I just got to thinking: we as Christians are both heros and villains (this might sound elementary and borderline on from here on out, but it's a new spin I believe I've learned). You see, lately I've just been beating myself over the head wondering how God could use me, how could He accept me because of the sin that seems to never be avoided. Realization: because of the Holy Spirit inside of me, I have the will to do good although I struggle with evil. It is not solely the actions that make you good or evil - it is the driving force that causes you to make those actions. Granted, we being humans are naturally pathetic-enduring-righteous-doers; but God welcomes us back because of our faith in Him, He sees our potential for greatness...

that is only a half-breaths version of what I wanted to say... I don't know if it made sense or if it is doctrinally sound... but it did help me finish off a poem I've been meaning to write.

The Hero And The Villain

There's a legal-thin line between the hero and the villain
Between selfishness and saving, between capturing and killin'
Differences in subtleness between the mask and cape
Between ambitions we give into and the actions that we make
Between principle and profit, between one's love versus one's lust
Between what is vengeful and vindictive, and what is virtuous and just
Between the hero and the villain, between character and crime
I find the line dividing
Is not so easily defined

Labels: poetry

5:18 PM

Saturday, February 23, 2008

two days ago on Thursday, I stayed after school with my friend to make a visual aid for the Huck Finn discussion to take place the day after. When that was finished, I went on the late bus home at four o'clock. I always tell the bus driver to drop me off at the two intersecting streets next to my house but somehow he's memorized where I live and drops me off right in front of my house... I don't know if I should be creeped out or thankful... I'll go with the latter. Anyway, on the ride home, there was a feather sticking out of my jacket, so I pulled at it.... it turned out to not be a single feather, but a clump of feathers (I have a down jacket). That was quite unexpected... I absent-mindedly blew the feathers from my fingertips and they went flying in the direction I blew them, one in the girl's hair in the seat in front of me. Feeling bad, I reached over to retrieve the stray feather from her hair but instead of grabbing feather, I grabbed hair instead... I immediately turned faced down in my seat because I was so embarassed..

Labels: awkward

7:20 AM

Sunday, February 3, 2008

worst driving experience ever.

so it was after Steven Levon's superbowl party, now two weeks ago. First and foremost, however, I got lost on the way to his house... and it didn't help that I was very low on gas already. After a little street searching, however, I was able to get back on the right road and to his house in good time. The party only housed a handful of people, and we did everything from Candyland and Sequence to Fifa Soccer and game watching (of course). hahaha what a game it was, thank goodness the Giants won, I cannot STAND the Patriots... so it had started to snow during the game and was still snowing outside when I brushed the snow off of the car. Me, having minimal snow driving, didn't panic because Levon's house was fairly close to mine.. yet the journey home would prove more perilous than would initially appear.

I missed the road I was supposed to turn on, and bright-brained me decided to take the road I was already on to see where it went. Bad idea... I was going the wrong way, and realized it. The road lines of separation were indistinguishable, and I pulled into a parking lot (next to LaSalle Bank) to turn around. Coming out of the parking lot, I didn't know where to turn though, because the snow covered everything, so I decided to reverse and find a better way out.. bad idea. I backed into a wall of snow that covered the driver's side of the car. Okay, no problem, I have gas in the car - oh wait, remember how I didn't have hardly enough gas going to Steve's house? The gas is now in the red zone and that emergency-your-almost-out-of-gas light is on. So I sit there and pray for a miracle... after useless flooring of the vehicle in both forward and reverse, I found out that if I switch gears really quickly I can rock my way out of the snow bank... and that's what I did after much deliberation.

I escaped the parking lot and turned onto the road that I hoped would bring me home... not so, I was going towards Buffalo Grove... so I pulled a U-turn in the middle of the street... bad idea number 2. The U-turn was made with so much perfection at first, but then the excess snow on the ground made my car slide, and I ended up sliding into the opposing snow bank, the back of my car jutting into oncoming traffic. I put on my hazard lights and tried to back out (which was really a bad idea because then people got the impression I was stuck, yet I tried to reverse onto the street... whoops...) and after a time was successful (at both getting my car unstuck and at not getting hit!) So I went the opposite direction and finally found Thomas Road that brought me and my car back in one piece, a thirty minute journey on what should have been five minutes of driving.

Labels: snow, Superbowl

10:36 PM