A Sith Lord needs an HT blog!

This is going to be my last post on this blog. I will miss this site, but I've been offered a Higher Things blog. Given the challenge "a Sith Lord needs an HT blog. What say you?", I certainly wouldn't decline. From now on let it be known that non cogito ergo non sum lives on not here, but at:

http://blog.higherthings.org/theologicopisco/

TFC (The Feast Countdown)

ONLY 1 MORE DAY!!!
I'll see you all starting Monday and Tuesday!
Be ready to Feast.

TFC (The Feast Countdown)

2 MORE DAYS!!!
I'll see you all starting Monday and Tuesday!
Be ready to Feast.

TFC (The Feast Countdown)

3 MORE DAYS!!!
I'll see you all starting Monday and Tuesday!
Be ready to Feast.

College

I've been gone. Could you tell? I've been attending an intensive three-week calculus course at Colorado College in the CO Springs. The class takes work, but isn't too hard for me, the food is good, and the campus and local scenery are just stunningly beautiful. Want to see?
























_____________________________________

The class ends this Friday. I will spend the weekend with my Aunt and Uncle near Denver, and then return to CC for another week for the The Feast, the 2006 Lutheran youth conference by Higher Things magazine. It will be tons of fun. I will meet tons of my online friends and strenghten my faith. What could be better?

Here are all my friends that I know I will be seeing there:
Aaron N
Adam L
Anna Joy H
Anna H
Alex L
Dorena S
Dorothy N
Ethan B
Hanna T
Heidi B
Heidi M
Kennedy M
Kelsey
Kim L
Leah D
Lynea T
Maggie R
Magnus
Maria
Michael H
Michelle H
Naomi K
Nathan N
Nick K
Nigel N
Paul G
Rachael D
Rachel D
Rachel E
Rae G
Rebekah T
and Tarja M
If their are people that should be on my list or shouldn't be on my list, email me and tell me. I can hardly wait to see all of y'all who are going to be there!

Peeps too!

Two Peeps. Two fates. Both were convicted of war crimes. The first sentenced to to a rather "mixed up" fate after which he felt kind of "down the drain", and the second to death by experimental Weapons of Mass Consumption (WMCs).

Ninja Sith

While you're waiting for a more substantial post, I am:

A Ninja
You scored 8 Honor, 5 Justice, 4 Adventure, and 6 Individuality!

You are a soldier of the night. You rely on no more than your cunning and your repuation to strike fear in the hearts of lord and peasant alike. You've a sense of honor, but one that comes from within, not imposed from outside.

Black clothes and shuriken for you. You're gonna do just fine.

Darth Bane You scored 38% wisdom, 78% aggression, 84% power, and 33% morality!

Your aggression and power have made you a survivor. You have emerged alive through a sea of death during the apparent collapse of the Sith. You are still not much for morality, though, being a Sith Lord. Some have called your decision to limit the amount of Sith to two beings wise, but the future proved you wrong.

School Rant (on English and "cheating")

I only intend a brief post today as I am very busy, but being in the middle of finishing up a final essay for my English class, some questions and grumbling come to mind. Here seems like a good place to put them. Maybe I'll include a quick rant about school in general too while I'm at at it.

First, English. All the english teachers I have ever had insist that certain things are not *ever* to be done in writing. One of the first I have prominently done already in this post to defy them. They say that when you write you should have absolutely *no* fragments upon penalty of your grade's death and the passive voice is to be avoided for sanity's sake (as though that would stop me). And *never* (never say never, Ms. B) start a sentence with a conjunction. Now I wouldn't have a problem if they said to make sure these don't occur often in you writings, but their "never evers" get on my nerves. In any of the great authors' works or even in those of green writers, you can find all the "problems" I listed. They add to written art as long as they are used only infrequently. So just why is it that I shouldn't model myself after theleterary masters? Why can two passives, just one sentence starting with a conjunction, and one fragment to emphasize an object or idea bring an otherwise great paper to its knees as merely mediocre?

While you ponder my English question, I'm moving on to my second and last rant for now. Public school loves to make claims right and left about how it is preparing us young folk for "the real world", but it seems to me that it universally enforces policies that do anything but prepare you for the way you are to work at your job for the rest of your life. "Cheating" is where I lay my the majority of these complaints. Students who work together on projects, share answers, etc. are punished by the school that is so kindly preparing them for "the real world". I don't "cheat", but I'd still like to know how this makes sense. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you encouraged in the work force to work together? At your typical job, aren't you supposed to work together with the others in your "class"? I've read things that seem to indicate that one of the things people get fired for most often is not working together. So tell me again, just how is school preparing us for our lifetime occupations and "the real world"?

That's all for now. I'm hoping to get a lot of comments from this post. Until next time, curate vobis. (Take care of yourselves.)

A blog. I wonder who's this is. It certainly isn't anyplace I'm familiar with. Maybe I'll post in it and see if anyone notices. They probably won't though. This blog looks abandoned by it's owner.

What should I say first? I've been a little busy, yes. Despite my best intentions, I procrastinated whenever I got told to post or myself considered posting. I also was enjoying the many comments I was getting on my last post. It made me feel kinda popular and like some people out their actually cared that I existed. Maybe I'd start posting regularly again if I keep getting a lot of comments on my posts.

I have two things I'd like to post about right now, but I have neither the time to post along both lines of thought nor do I feel like making one single post that long. My first train of thought is just my life and actions. The second is a mostly picture post on spring. I think shall save the latter for another day... This brings Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" to mind. *clears throat and goes into a dramatic recitation*

------------------------------------------------
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and ­I
~I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
------------------------------------------------

This post seems to be getting longer and longer as I type. The end doesn't seem to be any closer than when I started, and quite possibly is farther. I think I need to get into talking about my life and the stuff I mean to before this just drifts into endless pointless ramblings ever going onward and onward and on and on and... *someone in the audience coughs bringing Aaron back to reality* Ah. As I was saying. I think I'll start a new more purposeful paragraph right.....

Now!


The first of my stories starts back on the twenty-fifth of May but ties into the coming ninth of June. (You remember the 25th, do you not? Yes, that's it, Thursday a week and a half ago. Sorry to drag you back to ancient history.) Actually, it will be the ninth that I tell of first. Annually at my school there is a big doubles badminton tournament. It is the stuff of lore. Open only to my school's juniors, everyone looks forward to it, and half or more of the fellows in my class sign up for it. On the Thursday I refer you to, I bought myself a new badminton racquet. Yes yes, that first one pictured there. It is a weapon worthy of the greatest warriors and thus perfect for me. Recently professionals in this form of combat instructed my phys ed class in the art of badminton to prepare us for the upcoming tourney, and feel I have fared well. In fact, I decided to make my own coat of arms, a symbol if you will, for the upcoming occassion. With the help of fellow conspirators Paint, Sandpaper, Ruler, and Permanent Marker, I ambushed my racquet, removed the HL and replaced it with my own A! The second picture shows the results.

I find that the time for telling grows shorter though, so I must move on, but I continue with events of the same fateful 25th. That afternoon I was present at a meeting of my school's branch of the national Teenage Republicans. I was often do, we had a guest of honor come to speak to us. That day it was R. J. Harris. A local, very conservative talk radio personality on WHP580, a good, conservative, talk radio station and the most listened to station in the area. R. J. brought along t-shirts for everyone attending to make up for forgetting about us the week before. Usually I would not let someone off so easily or with so small of a bribe, but I will let him live since there aren't nearly enough conservative radio celebrities. The meeting was quite enjoyable, even a little more so than usual. We talked over just about every conservative issue under the sun: why we all chose to be Republicans, leadership and some problems with the GOP, immigration, some good traits of Canadians, national security, why so many people dislike Bush, the elections coming up this fall and various canidates chances, government spending, former President Reagan, government size, and the war in Iraq, but that's just naming a little. You can probably imagine just how enjoyable that was for me.

The nest day, Friday May 26, I attended a convivium, a Roman dinner party, in my Latin III class.
There was quite an impressive array of foods presents representing the various courses of a rich Roman's dinner.





Unfortunately, this included that ever present menace, the Olive.

Though it was not required, I dress appropriately for the event, wearing my royal purple toga. Thus ended my week two weeks ago.


That next Sunday, a week before today, was my care pater, dear father's, birthday. He turned [number left out for the sake of Aaron's head] this year, starting off another "even year" when every in my family age becomes an even number. From my brothers he got the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Waredrobe (TCoN:tLtWatW for short).
My mom's present to him was a wonderful cake and big dinner.

I was the one to give my dad the most valuable gift though. So valuable, in fact, that I've chosen not to picture it. I "talked to" my brothers then promised him four weeks of all the computer time and time on the internet that mom will let him have. Now he can hardly wait for me to go college and The Feast for four weeks in a row this summer.

That is all I have time to write and tell you about for now, dear friends. I have some work to do and couple days of final exams that I really need to study for. In a few more days, after those are over, and if you all show enough attention in an active blog of Aaron, I will probably come back to talk about the past few days, some philosophical thoughts, and the beauty of summer and spring.

valete! manete bene!
Goodbye and stay well.

The Anti-Olive Brigade has a blog! http://www.antiolive.blogspot.com

And now....the post you’ve all been waiting for!!! ..........or not, but this will serve as an interim post until I put up the really long post I’m putting up about the Classics Festival I went to back on...um...May 3rd....heh....

Anyways, school has been as overwhelming as usually. No more, but no less. When school hasn’t occupied me I’ve been busy posting on the Higher Things forums, or reading and commenting on the 50-ish blogs I read, or reading and responding to Mouth House mail, or reading, or going for runs and bike rides and dog walks, .......or just putting off or forgetting that I even had a blog ....heh....

Today was/is everything trash day in our development. People throw out everything imaginable, and other people look for and find everything imaginable. Yesterday my mom found a cool orange chair. It needs a teeny bit of fixing up and a quick sponge off, but it’s a shade of my favourite colour (I do prefer a red-orange).

I decided this morning (or rather re-decided) that Pennsylvania is frustrating. Back out in Ohio or even more in Chicago, when you have a lot of bright, clear, happy, sun-shiny days in a row it’s called normal nice weather. Here we’ve had a period of great days like that, and I was really happy. I feel a lot happier when there’s sunshine. Too much cloud for too long makes me get a leettle beet depressed. Then they started getting worried because out here long periods of sun is a drought threat. Grr... PA. Now it’s overcast again. Maybe this happens because they don’t get those efficient pouring quick cats-and-dogs thunderstorms from the great lakes that Chicago and Cleveland get. I miss 100+ degree sunny days and big warm summer thunderstorms.

Don’t worry though. I’m not depressed yet. I just was thinking about that this morning and thought y’all might appreciate any sign that I was still alive. Did I manage to convince you I am alive? Ha! Fooled you. ;-) :-P :-P

Have fun, y’all!

“Hell is that way...” *points down* “...and Texas is that way...” *points up* “...right, Brian?” (an interesting conversation in Economics class after somebody inexplicably pointed down to say where California was; Brain is from Texas)

The time has come for an accounting of Thursday and Friday. For just two days, a lot has happened, so this will probably be one of Aaron’s posts that never end. ;-) :P

Thursday, my mom and I started out about 8:10 for Ohio to pick up grandma. It was a little later than we had intended, but pretty good for us. To pass the 16 hours of driving there and back again we listened to A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, a humorously written but factual account of walking on the Appalachian Trail. It would be a great book if only it didn’t have a bunch of foul language and some sick jokes. I can sort of understand having it in there though since it’s his actually experience on the Trail with his old friend “Cats”, who apparently is a slightly foul and shady character but still...

On the eight hour drive, I got to do a lot of driving (Never would have guessed that would you? :P ). I got to do about half our distance before a stop at our friends’ in Pittsburgh for lunch, and a second 100+ miles after lunch. Another surprise, we got places faster when I was driving. I thank my dad for that. Thanks, dad. :P I figured out why we need cruise control. I never could have stood driving that far without it.

We got to Medina, OH, and I convinced my mom to drop me off and let me just walk around town for a couple hours. Since it’s a nice small friendly town, I could power-walk everywhere in town in an hour and a half! B-) :D Out here in PA I can’t walk anywhere except my friend’s across the street. We had supper at Dan’s Dogs, a retro style hot dog place that specializes in a large variety of hot dogs. Maundy Thursday service was at our old Medina church, but I’ll write more about that later today or tomorrow when I plan to write a long post just about Holy Week worship. It took people a moment to recognize who the tall unfamiliar boy was. When we moved away, I was about a foot shorter and wore glasses instead of contacts. It was nice to see a few old friends there.

After service, I got to see some more old friends, Jessie (a MHer of old) and Emily (a current MHer). I've known both of them a year or two longer than the three years I've been on Mouth House. We stayed at Jessie's house. The three young people stayed up until about 3am watching Narnia and Sahara, talking, joking, laughing, and poking each other to death. It fit with one nice quote I wrote down from A Walk in the Woods, "There's nothing like a good night's sleep, and that was nothing like a good night's sleep."

The next morning, we picked up grandma. We ate at Hardee's, and I have to say they've really improved recently. We used to eat at Hardee's all the time, but then they became expensive, and we stopped. Now they have really good service, always take your food to your table, the burgers look like they just ground up the in back and slapped a really thick pattie on the grill instead getting preprocessed junk like the other fast food chains, someone passes around after dinner mints, and most important, I'm being payed to say this. ;-) :D

Since then, we've just come home and gone to a bunch of Holy Week services. Valete!

I'm heading for Ohio in a few minutes, but I won't be there long. Like I said before, I'm just going with my mom to pick up grandma for Easter and so I can see a couple old friends. The friend I wanted to see most isn't going to be there though. This past week was his spring break and his family is down in Tennesee for a couple days.

I've now been on spring break for about 16.25 hours. I have about 120.58 hours of break left. I still wish I had a whole week off like most people do, but I'll enjoy my break all the same.

"It's always better to err on the side of conservative."-A lady who came in to my once a week career class to talk about job interviews. She was talking about dress for job interviews, but with my political wisdom, I knew it was a good political quote and just had to write it down for later use. :D B-)

Valete!

salve.

We are having an early summer in PA. The calendar disagrees with me, but I’m sure of it. Even though the mornings are still chilly we’ve been having weather in 70s. Yesterday I even made it officially by getting my short summer haircut. So if everyone else disagrees then it’s just summer because I said so. ;-) B-)

98 days until The Feast! Heidi, you’d better watch out. I’m getting in some lightsaber practice against my brothers when I have the time, and my brother even has the same lightsaber as your Deadly Lutheran Wrath.

I don’t have much to say today, so I’ll leave y’all with a question. Is pie, cheesecake, or cake better? Have fun thinking on that.

valete!

Salve and hello!

I’ve decided to come back here and post as though I have a life. You can all point at me and snigger from your respective locations, but when I look at you please nod and pretend you believe me.

School has been as hectic as ever. We’ve been reading Arthur Miller’s The Crucible aloud in my English class. I volunteered to do the part of John Proctor, one of the major parts, which gives me a chance to exercise my [melo]dramatic side. I’m enjoying it. In math class we’re having ever so many oodles fun to the point that I can hardly stand it. (That’s being sarcastic if you couldn’t tell.) We’re learning polar graphing and such. I surprised myself by pulling off an A on the last test despite only remembering I had it in lunch the period before.

My “spring break” begins this Thursday, but it's really short. We only get Thursday, Friday, and Monday off. Thursday I'm going to be going with my mom when she goes to pick up grandma for Easter. I'm going along so I can worship at our old church and see some old friends. It'll be a lot of fun. I haven't seen most of the friends I'm going to drop in on for about three years. They ought to be pleasantly surprised when they see me at the Maundy Thursday service.

That's about all I have to say for now. So, until next time, vale!

Okay, a while ago I posted these links (http://kevan.org/johari?name=Aaron+N, http://kevan.org/nohari?name=Aaron+N) and asked you to tell me what you thought my dominant personality traits and my biggest faults were. I still want those of you who didn't go and do that to do that now, but now I'll analyze the results so far. I was surprised that people said I was confident, dignified, extroverted, and proud. I was also surprised that people said I was aloof, boastful, and panicky. I'm going to have to watch out especially for the first two of those in the future. Thank you everyone for agreeing unanimously that I'm religious. I like people to think of me that way.

Valete!
[exits pursued by and armed and angry mob]

PS. Everyone, please also visit this site. Thanks. -ADN

Profile.1.Name- Aaron N...
2.Age- Just under 6550 days.
3.Height- 1.8161 meters.
4.Shoe size- 12
5.Ring size- I think it’s 8 or 9.
6.Unusual habits- I have far too many unusual habits to list them.
7.Eye color- Brown
8.Length of left big toe- 2.25 inches from the skin in between the toes, 3.25 from the first joint.
9.Length of right pinky toe- 1.5 inches.
10.Number in your graduating (or present) class- About 600. My class is the smallest.
11.Graduation year (high school)- 2007
12.Graduation year (college)- 2011(ish)
13.Graduation year (seminary)- A while in the future if I decide in the not quite so far future that I want to go to seminary.
14.Major (planned) in college- I have no idea yet, but maybe a double major in Mathematics and the Classics.
15.Address- I am smarter than to put my address online. All anyone needs to know is that I live somewhere in Pennsylvania.
16.Social security number- I know that, but I’m smarter than to put that up here either.
17.Zip code- Nope. You won’t even get that from me.
Favorites and two Least Favorites.
33.Favorite Movie- Hard choice. Probably The Lord of the Rings movies or the Narnia movie.
19.Favorite TV show- I don’t really watch TV.
20.Favorite CD- I don’t really own any CDs. I like my computer game CDs though.
21.Favorite tape- I haven’t listened to any of my tapes in man years.
22.Favorite band- Rascal Flatts or Little Big Town.
23.Favorite superhero- Daredevil or Batman or someone else.
24.Favorite book- Way too many to list, but if I have to pick a couple then Lord of the Rings and Dune and such.
25.Favorite poster- Our 2-foot(ish) by 4-foot(ish) Lord of the Rings poster.
26.Favorite Brady child- No idea.
27.Favorite American Idol- I have yet to watch American Idol once.
28.Favorite X-man- Cyclops or Nightcrawler.
29.Favorite member of NSYNC- I don’t know any of them.
30.Favorite sport- Basketball or biking or swimming or ice skating or street hockey.
31.Favorite weapon- My lightsaber, a relic from the end of the Old Republic. It is Anikan’s lightsaber or Vader’s lightsaber. I can change it at will.
18.Favorite clothing brand- Whatever I happen to be wearing at the moment.
34.Favorite Higher Things blog- Borghardt’s Reflector.
35.Favorite restaurant- Gino’s East pizza place in Chicago.
36.Favorite food- A true Chicago *DEEP*-dish pizza.
37.Favorite type of restaurant- Any formal dining place.
38.Favorite type of food- I love any food! I can’t pick, I just love any food!!!
39.Favorite color- Orange, closely followed by blue and red.
40.Favorite period of history- The American Civil War..
41.Favorite Muppet- Fozzie.
42.Favorite alcoholic beverage- Communion wine.
43.Favorite musical instrument- My... … er.. I mean *my mom’s* guitar.
44.Favorite candle scent- The big mocha candle I bought my mom. (No Heidi Mae, I’m not stealing your response. I buy mom scented candles all the time. It’s my standby when she doesn’t provide a wish list.)
45.Favorite operating system- Windows, despite its bugs.
46.Favorite smiley face- :P or 0:-)
47.Least favorite book- Tool of the Trade. I wish I’d never read it. I’m glad I stabbed it to deatha dn then burned it.
48.Least favorite candle scent- I have yet to meet a candle scent I dislike.
Have you Ever?...49.Have you ever gone toga-ing? ITA VERO!
50.Have you ever blown up, set on fire, or mutilated an action figure? Umm… yes.
51.Have you ever tried to eat a fake decorative fruit? I took a bite out of a wax apple, but it isn’t my fault that my mom put it on the counter with nothing else fake around it.
52.Have you ever gone trick-or-treating since your childhood? Um... does 10th grade count?
53.Have you ever killed a seagull? That sounds like fun.
54.Have you ever eaten a dog biscuit? Yes. Just a couple days ago actually. Right before I read this for the first time.
55.Have you ever fired a high powered rifle? Yes! It’s was a semi-automatic too.
56.Have you ever worn a dress? No.
57.Have you ever tried hitting a piece of technology to make it work? Only once... usually I just have to threaten it.
58.Have you ever head banged through the entire guitar solo in Bohemian Rhapsody? Um... No. Could someone explain what this question means?
59.Have you ever deep-fat fried a random food item and eaten it? I should try that. My neighbor across the street (the Tom with the black belt) has a mini deep fat fryer.
60.Have you ever been in a blog war? No. Just in forum and MH list wars.
Miscellaneous61.How many HT conferences have you been to? Four.
62.Do you know how to play any musical instruments? If you can, which kinds? I play piano, recorder, and accordion, and I’m quickly teaching myself guitar.
63.Did anyone notice that I switched numbers 33 and 18? Not until I read this question on Heidi’s blog.
64.Did anyone notice the other numbering errors? Yes, several.
65.Did anyone actually look for other numbering errors? No.
66.If you had to dress up as one Star Trek character, which one would it be? Spock.
67.Do you have any odd hobbies? Far too many to list them all, but I’ll name a few. I love to climb random tree. I still play with Legos. I grab and eat anything that is supposed to be a food, but might not quite be classified as one. I’m insane.
68.What's the most random gift you've ever given or received? Um... a dead plant and half eaten candy bar. I got the dead plant and gave the half eaten candy bar.
69.Sith or Jedi? SITH!!! Sith are awesome! Sith will beat Heidi in a lightsaber duel to the death at The Feast.
70.How do you like your steak cooked? Medium-rare, so it’s still juicy.
71.If someone paid you $5, would you drink Dr. Pepper out of the navel of a hairy Scottsman? Um... this is most certainly a no.
72.Did you enjoy filling out this tag form? Yes!
73.Will you be prepared at The Feast to party every night with The Mop and Patty? Sure.
74.Do you vow never to tag, as well as never respond to tags, ever again? Of course not! I love being tagged.
75.Which three people do you choose to tag? Hmm…
1) Rachel D (again. HA!!!)
2) Ethan
3) Emily

It is spring. This is most certainly true. Everything says so. The calendar, Garrison Keillor, a bunch April fools, and the dandelions on the church lawn say it’s spring.

I finally decided to come back from hibernation. School has been trying to kill me for a couple weeks, but was unsuccessful. And I’ve used the past week to catch up on the Mouth House list and the Higher Things forums. Quite a task, I can assure you.

That’s about all I have to say for now. Church this morning was fun as usual. The choir sang. There were snacks after.

Have a holly jolly Fifth Sunday in Lent. Good bye!

(PS. That does count as a complete recent post, right Seth? -ADN)

Hello, any remaining faithful readers of my blog.

Wow. I knew I hadn't posted in a while, but this is ridiculous. My last post was on 2-18. So much for posting every day or two. I've had really bad writer's block for a while. Thoughts just weren't flowing, and those that did weren't pretty. I was depressed for about a week of that time because I'd found out that I definitely hadn't made it to go the HT conference, The Feast. My mom used a friend's of trick going to the bank a couple weeks after putting our registration in the mail to see if the check had been cashed. It hadn't. Really depressing. We'd sent in our forms in the day it was posted that registration was full, but we hoped to get in even though it was last minute because we were joining a group that was already registered.

Yesterday afternoon, we finally got a letter from the Higher Things registration people. "Aaron & Nathan ... Greetings & Welcome to THE FEAST!!!" My mom was WRONG!!! Hooray!!! I could hardly believe it, and my mom didn't until she read it for herself. "We're delighted to inform you that your registration pages have been received and the you are coming to THE FEAST!!!" They seem to like to capitalized the name of the conference for some reason. I don't think they did that in the letters for the past three I've been to, but it matched my mood as I read it perfectly. "Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you at THE FEAST!!" Thank you Higher Things. That only thing I'm not ecstatic about is that this didn't come Saturday. Heidi Mae and Tokelau are going to be on vacation in the states for three weeks still thinking that they're not going to meet me. Oh well, they can stand waiting for what they don't know is coming, and they'll be having tons fun on vacation.

Before I go I'll briefly mention the couple biggest things that have happened since I last posted. A couple Sundays ago my church's youth group went snow tubing on artificial snow (you gotta' love technology). School's been alright. I've received HUNDREDS of brochures, letters, and emails from colleges, which isn't making that choice any easier. My mom is in Ohio because her mom wants her kids there when she talks to some doctors to decide if she should get a surgery even though there's a far too great chance she wouldn't make it through. Please pray for my grandma. Today in Chem I had a party, and in Precalc/Trig I slept.

Go to these links and tell me what you think makes me me. I really want to know.
http://kevan.org/johari?name=Aaron+N
http://kevan.org/nohari?name=Aaron+N

Valete, mei cari amici!

bonus vespers!

I’m back, awake, and more or less alive for someone who stayed up IMing past midnight. Just kidding. I like staying up late even more than I like early mornings. The only thing I’ll blame you for is my missing the sunrise this morning, and I’ve seen it enough it isn’t horribly important to me.

“If at first you don’t succeed, then break or change the rules so you do.” Okay, so maybe I changed the saying a little bit, but a school principle unknowingly helped me decide that this was true. Maybe, it’s just proof that there’s something wrong with the public school. The other day, my mom came to pick me up at school, but the van wouldn’t start when we tried to start it. We then got someone car trouble jump

I’m actually having some fun getting room cleaned. It’s a tough battle, but still fun. It feels and looks so much fresher in there now, and I’m only halfway done. I’ve stuffed five grocery bags as full as I could get them with trash. That is quite an impressive load for a pack rat like me. I’m just so happy with how my room looks and proud with my improvements.

I’ve had some interesting foods recently. Yesterday, I had an Asian pear. It’s shaped like an apple but is the brown-green color of a pear. The taste is a lot like something I’ve had, but I just can’t place it, and it’s driving me crazy[er]. Maybe it’s like starfruit, another Asian fruit I’ve had. I had braunschweiger for lunch today with Swiss cheese and a slice of tomato and on some heavy German bread. I like braunschweiger sandwiches. They rank right up there with onion and peanut butter sandwiches and peanut butter on celery. I had a coconut-pineapple juice recently too. Also very good.

I need to get signed up for the SAT. I’ve been doing a bit of reviewing with a program my parents bought. The only thing I really need to know has to do with taking it multiple times. Do any of you know how they work the scores if you take it two or three times? At a presentation my mom went to the guy said they take your highest score from each of the sections of the SAT, but my dad is convinced that your scores are averaged. The difference would be that it is beneficial to take it repeatedly if my mom is right, but might not be good if your scores are averages. Could you all please tell me what you know about it?

I’ve noticed some pretty disgusting and extravagant fashion trends among teens recently.
For some guys, the style seems to be wearing you jeans five sizes too big and halfway down their legs so all of their boxers shorts show, and girls jeans are really tight and a little low waisted. Also, why is it that it’s in style to have pants with holes pre scraped into the fabric? The jeans companies are making a fortune selling ripped pants for $40 to $100 and more.

I finally found our local Olympics channel. The reception isn’t great, but when we move the furniture into the proper position, we get color, and if we stand still and don’t breathe, we even get sound. ;) ;) In school, I was watching the Olympics and saw the people on camera were holding up a giant Canadian flag. They interviewed the US’s 16-year-old ice skater. Yesterday I was watching the snowcross or snowboardcross or whatever it was called and saw our 20-year-old competitor doing great out 18 feet or so in front of the competition, and then she just had to try that stunt and lose her gold. Oh well. Does anyone know where I can find what the medal count is up to?

I’m already getting a ton of letters from colleges. In the past week, I’ve received 16 college brochures. It’s starting to make my head spin trying to remember everything and decide what colleges I like. I think my favorites right now are a handful of the colleges in the Concordia University system (esp. CUW), some of the really prestigious colleges, Penn State, and Concordia Saint Catherine’s up in Canada. I’ve also receive the standard letters from the US Army, Navy, National Guard, and Marines. I just need a letter from the Air Force to know for sure that the whole US Military is crazy. I mean, after all, what other reason would there be for them all thinking they want me?

The snow tubing scheduled for last Sunday when church was cancelled was rescheduled for tomorrow. It ought to be fun. Artificial snow. 40 or 50-degree weather. Just wonderful. If you think I’m being sarcastic, you’re right. I dislike artificial snow and warm winters. I will have fun though.

NO MORE TELEGRAMS STOP WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM SERVICE OUT OF BUSINESS LAST MONTH STOP

Currently reading:
7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter by Michael Reaves
The Dragon King by R.A. Salvatore
Dune by Frank Herbert
High Calling by Evelyn Husband
Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
The Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancy
That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
Why I Am a Lutheran by Daniel Preus

salve homines!

Today I’m going to talk about school for a change. Oh, wait. I always talk about school, don’t I? Maybe it’s because school occupies almost all my waking life. At least I’m never sarcastic or anything like that. ;)

Last time I posted, I talked about the first day of the PSSAs. Since then I’ve had the two writing prompts to fight. The first prompt was definitely biased towards liberals. My [conservative] friends and I all agreed that the way it was worded it all but told you to write about liberal environmental concerns. The exact words of the prompt were:

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread in it. Whatever we do to the web we do to ourselves… All things connect.
“Write an essay that provides examples to explain this idea of the ‘web of life’.”

It was pretty hard to write on. Even my liberal teachers thought it was bad. I managed to beat it though. To get some conservative views in it, I even managed to drag in abortion and use it to illustrate how our actions affect others. The second one was much better. It was:

“At what age are people ready to assume the rights of adulthood?
“Write an essay persuading others that your view is valid.”

The past few days in American Lit., my first period class, we’ve been watching the movie “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” The acting is really good, and it has a couple insightful life lessons, but most of the story is really creepy and full of dark humor.

My economics teacher, Mr. Fish, was really out of it earlier this week. He did a bunch of odd things, the funniest of which was writing “Mall Wart” on the chalkboard instead of “Wal-Mart”. Thursday and Friday, we’ve had a sub in Econ because Mr. Fish is having a minor surgery. Today, we finished everything early and got most of the period as free time, but we ended up just watching the scenery out the window. While we watched, a really strong wind picked up. The clouds were racing across the sky, and we could hear a roaring thrumming sound. The American flag we could see was held steadily straight out from its pole. We saw a CV High School banner get ripped off a light pole along with one of the horizontal metal bars that was holding out from the pole. Then we watched a stop sign be blown over and run over by a Fed-Ex truck, which was wobbling in the wind. It really was quite a sight.

In one of my study halls, I’m getting help from a really cool Latin IV kid for my Latin III class. During my other in study hall, I was down the IMC (the Instructional Media Center aka. a school library with a big ego), and I noticed that the sophomore English classes are down there working on their bibliography projects. I pity the sophomores. Even though I got the bibliography stuff quicker than most of the kids in my class, I still remember how hard the project is because of the meticulous attention to details. (psst... Go perfectionists! ;) :P )

The trigonometric proofs we’re working on in my math class have been almost physically painful, and math comes easily to me. I think I did alright on our test today. I was the only person who seemed to be walking out of the room sure I’d gotten a 100%.

For Valentine’s Day, I didn’t get anything :( , but that didn’t surprise me. I did send valentines to a handful of friends to let them know they’re appreciated and on my own time did some research on the background of Valentine’s Day. Despite being as mean as I am, I’ll share some of what I learn with all of you. Valentine’s Day’s earliest roots lie in a Roman pagan festival to the god of fertility that was held on February 15th. Then, in first few centuries AD, there was a or were several Saint Valentines who died as martyrs. No one is quite sure if it was one associated with a couple different Roman towns and finally put to death for his faith in Rome or two or three Valentines who lived and died in different places.

Well, that’s about all I have time to write tonight. I have a lot more to say, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow… er… later today because I’ve just spent all my time talking to a couple of my regular readers. valete omnes amici!

Oh no! The full moon is coming out from behind the clouds! Augh!

Yay! The 13th! My lucky day!

School was just schooly. The first day of English PSSAs went well (I finished before anyone else in the room), but the writing prompts don't start until tomorrow. If someone else cheated by looking ahead in the booklet to see what the writing prompts are, and then told the classroom, is it cheating to do research on what I now know I'm going to be writing on?

I went to the orthodonist today. My braces are working fine. They should be off before senior pictures this fall.

Since I didn't do or think much today, I'm going to post a great consevative article my dad got sent.

CALVIN AND HOBBES - AND MUHAMMAD
February 8, 2006
by: Ann Coulter

As my regular readers know, I've long been skeptical of the "Religion of Peace" moniker for Muslims - for at least 3,000 reasons right off the top of my head. I think the evidence is going my way this week.

The culture editor of a newspaper in Denmark suspected writers and cartoonists were engaging in self-censorship when it came to the Religion of Peace. It was subtle things, like a Danish comedian's statement, paraphrased by The New York Times, "that he had no problem urinating on the Bible but that he would not dare do the same to the Quran."

So, after verifying that his life insurance premiums were paid up, the editor expressly requested cartoons of Muhammad from every cartoonist with a Danish cartoon syndicate. Out of 40 cartoonists, only 10 accepted the invitation, most of them submitting utterly neutral drawings with no political content whatsoever.

But three cartoons made political points.

One showed Muhammad turning away suicide bombers from the gates of heaven, saying, "Stop, stop - we ran out of virgins!” which I believe was a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence. Another was a cartoon of Muhammad with horns, which I believe was a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence. The third showed Muhammad with a turban in the shape of a bomb, which I believe was an expression of post-industrial ennui in a secular - oops, no, wait: It was more of a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence.

In order to express their displeasure with the idea that Muslims are violent, thousands of Muslims around the world engaged in rioting, arson, mob savagery, flag-burning, murder and mayhem, among other peaceful acts of nonviolence.

Muslims are the only people who make feminists seem laid-back.

The little darlings brandish placards with typical Religion of Peace slogans, such as: "Behead Those Who Insult Islam," "Europe, you will pay, extermination is on the way" and "Butcher those who mock Islam.” They warn Europe of their own impending 9/11 with signs that say: "Europe: Your 9/11 will come" - which is ironic, because they almost had me convinced the Jews were behind the 9/11 attack.

The rioting Muslims claim they are upset because Islam prohibits any depictions of Muhammad - though the text is ambiguous on beheadings, suicide bombings and flying planes into skyscrapers.

The belief that Islam forbids portrayals of Muhammad is recently acquired. Back when Muslims created things, rather than blowing them up, they made paintings, frescoes, miniatures and prints of Muhammad.

But apparently the Quran is like the Constitution: It's a "living document," capable of sprouting all-new provisions at will. Muslims ought to start claiming the Quran also prohibits indoor plumbing, to explain their lack of it.

Other interpretations of the Quran forbid images of humans or animals, which makes even a child's coloring book blasphemous. That's why the Taliban blew up those priceless Buddhist statues; bless their innocent, peace-loving little hearts.

Largely unnoticed in this spectacle is the blinding fact that one nation is missing from the long list of Muslim countries (by which I mean France and England) with hundreds of crazy Muslims experiencing bipolar rage over some cartoons: Iraq. Hey - maybe this democracy thing does work! The barbaric behavior of Europe's Muslims suggests that the European welfare state may not be attracting your top-notch Muslims.

Making the rash assumption for purposes of discussion that Islam is a religion and not a car-burning cult, even a real religion can't go bossing around other people like this.

Catholics aren't short on rules, but they couldn't care less if non-Catholics use birth control. Conservative Jews have no interest inforbidding other people from mixing meat and dairy. Protestants don't make a peep about other people eating food off one another's plates. (Just stay away from our plates - that's disgusting.)

But Muslims think they can issue decrees about what images can appear in newspaper cartoons. Who do they think they are? Liberals?

COPYRIGHT 2006 ANN COULTER

DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE

Filled to overflowing with sarcasm, ultra-conservative, tolerant of the peace loving muslims. Just my kind of article. I mean, not that I would ever dream of being sarcastic, but what's not to like?

valete!

Happy Sunday!

As I mentioned as a postscript yesterday, the snow finally came. It kept snowing all of last night and has snowed some today. It might be snowing more now. I can’t tell because it’s too dark to see anymore. Church was cancelled because of the snow. We were told when we got the first call that the youth group might still go snow tubing, but received a call later saying we wouldn’t because too many people were “still digging out”.

I’ve finally gotten around to doing a thorough cleaning of my room. I have no idea how long it’s been since I last cleaned it properly. It was probably when we painted a year ago. I’m very proud of myself for making progress. When my mom walked in, her comment was “Wow. I can see the floor”. Maybe I’ll actually get it really really clean, put in the wood floor we have waiting, and buy the plush blue area rug I want to complement my orange walls.

I’m getting really frustrated with the television stations around here. The Winter Olympics have been going on for three days now, but I haven’t been able to find any stations showing any of it. They are happy to show college basketball, Californian golf tournaments, and motorcycle racing, but heaven forbid that they show giant international winter sports competitions. The only brief mention they’ve gotten was when Michelle Kwan dropped out of the ice skating competitions because she’s been suffering from some injuries and this way someone else can have a go. Sad news. She was really good even if she didn’t get any Olympic golds.

I heard Audioslave last night. I like it. I tried my best to remember what the songs were, so of course I’ve forgotten. I just don’t know about that name though. I find it much easier to relate to twenty matchboxes than it is for me to relate slaves of audio.

The PSSA tests are coming up for me this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. They are Pennsylvanian achievement tests that all Juniors have to pass. There are tests in English and Mathematics, but this week is only English. Math comes up mid-March. I hope I do alright. I know that I can pass it at the level I need to get, but I’m a little nervous that the five paragraph essay writing prompt will bring me down from the really high level I know I capable of. We did a bunch of practice and preparatory stuff in my English class. However, I was absent for the writing prompt practice. Juniors shouldn’t have to take so many big exams. PSAT, midterm exams, PSSAs, SAT, ACT, some other test if you might want to go into the military, and final exams. Ugh. Well, wish me luck and God’s blessing on the PSSA. I’ll tell you when I need to be blessed in preparation for the other tests.

Oh, before I go. I can’t decide if I should send some humorous Valentine cards to a couple girls who are just friends. Could you people who read my blog give me a little advice here? Thanks.

valete amici!
[vanishes in a puff of bright blue, pine scented smoke]
[coughing is heard in the distance]

PS. Don’t anyone tell my mom my blog address if she comes knocking at your door. She’s been trying to find it (i.e. asking me for the URL every time she sees me). It’s not that I have anything on here that she shouldn’t read. I’d just prefer she didn’t.

salvete!

What happened to the snow?!? It was supposed to begin early early this morning, but I it's now 11 o'clock and the ground isn't even damp. See the photo? Not even damp!!! Grr... From now on I'm back to making my own weather forecasts. When I used to do that, I was always much more accurate than the weathermen anyways. www.weatherunderground.com is the site I use most to look at weather maps.

If you'll now look to the right, you'll see the other side of my class ring. You see "Art" and "Aaron Nemoyer" shaped out of gold, just the way my name was always meant to be. ;) :D

Now, since I'm having way too much fun this morning with my digital camera. I'll stick another one in here. Look below. I have decided that when one's drain glows it is a sure sign that you have a radio active sewer and soon will have problems with gaint bugs and mutant reptiles and giant goldfish. :P

The other day at school I saw a shirt I want. I'm sure most of you have seen those pink shirts that say, "Real men wear pink," right? Well, this was my colors. It was a red-orange shirt with big bright blue lettering. It said, "Real men wear orange." I need to get that shirt.

MH soon will have it's second couple. I just heard last night that Nathan Fischer proposed to Katie Gehlbach. She accepted of course, and they'll be the second couple MH has turned out. The first being Nick and Naomi Kavouras (formerly Naomi Rhein). I have two sisters. Both aren't actually part of my family. Katie Gehlbach is my older sister because she adopted me as her brother so she could legally annoy me. If the sister that adopted me gets married, then what is her husband's relation to me? Is he my adopted brother-in-law, or does he have to adopt me as his brother-in-law first? :P

In case you didn't know it, today is Saturday! Hooray weekend! Hooray one day I can sit around in pajamas all day! Actually, while I'm sitting writing most of this it is midnight. I'm writing on a greasy paper plate (see picture) and eating my midnight meal of spaghetti and cheddar cheese because we're out of paremaesan.

I was thinking deeply again. I know, I shouldn't do it, I might hurt myself. ;) :P But I did it anyways. I was thinking how our generation is the first to grow up with the internet. That means that we're the first generation for whom it is easy to maintain long distance friendship and keep friends long distance and such. We are the first generation that can easily fufill promises to keep in contact with higher school friend. Just thought it was interest. I'd thought of more when I thought of that, but that's all I remember.

I'm reading the book Hope Was Here. I guess it's a pretty good book.

None of the stations I'm flipping through are showing the Winter Olympics. That stinks. They're just showing college basketball and warm golf tournaments in California. I really wanted to watch those. Gr.. It must be Canadian prejudice. They know the Canadians will do better than us. Oh well.

valete!

PS. 4:00pm It's snowing now. The snow is late.

I had school today. We watched a movie in english class / American Lit. The Troubles of Gilbert Grape. In math I'm now getting the trigonometric identities stuff.

We finally have cold winter weather again! We're supposed to get snow tonight and tomorrow morning. Six to twelve inches of it.

The ring is a digital picture of my class ring. A gold cross on a navy blue sapphire. "Cumberland Valley HS" around the gem. 2007 and a eagle custom made eagle for our school on the side you see. An eagle is our school mascot, and I graduate in June 2007. There are diamonds set in the zeros of the 2007. On the other side is "Aaron Nemoyer" and a bunch of art implements with "Art" in small letters over them. The bottom is scraped-ish so it has a texture. Inside, in the top, is engraved "Matthew 28:20" thats my confirmation verse. The full verse is "And lo I am with you always. Even unto the end of the age." Well. That's all. Just thought I'd tell you about it.

valete amici!

cari amici, salveo ad meum most recent post! :-P

You may be wondering, "What did Aaron do today?", and I would be mean for me to deny you the answer to your question. And the final answer is: not much. I went to school.

Today I recieved a letter from the U.S. Nation Guard. They seem to think that they want me to join. This means that the Army, Navy, Marines, and National Guard are all after me to join them. Maybe I should flee to Canada. Does the promise to teach me skiing, snow boarding, and curling still stand? ;-)

A few days ago I recieved my first letter from a college. Carleton College. They're 5th in the nation by US News and World Report's ranking. They got my PSAT score from College Board (210 out of 240 when about 147 is the average). They obviously haven't seen my grades.

Okay, my dad's telling me to go to bed now so I'll finish this quick. Last weekend was the Winter Gala Dance. About a week before it, there was an annoucement that 1) There would be drug and alcohol testing at the dance of anyone suspected of having used drugs or being drunk and 2) that girls should wear any innapropriate clothing. It was horrible to hear how many people were against having the drug/alcohol testing, but I already knew that lots of the juniors and seniors drink. It's also distgusting seeing some of the very revealing clothing girls wear to the dances. I went to one dance last year, and there were a couple girls wearing "dresses" that hardly covered what should be. I didn't go to Gala. Not that I don't like dancing, I *love* dancing. I just didn't go because there areb't any girls at my school that I'd ask out.

Finally, THE FEAST IS FULL!!! AUGH!!! Alas! I stil might might have a chance of getting in. We are joing up with a Michigan group that is already registered and sent a cover letter in with our registration saying that we were post last last minute aditions to their group. Hopefully since the group is already registered we'll get slipped in. Oh, why didn't my parents register monthes ago when I first said we should?!? Why?!? I'll just hope. AND PRAY!!!

valete nam pavo tempore!

PS. If the picture below (in the previous post) isn't displaying, then click on it to see the picture. It's my class ring. Up close and personal.

Greeting to all of you from Ego qui non sum!

First topic of discussion. I didn't think to mention this before, but a couple weeks ago there was an assembly at school. It was one of those motivational presentations. I thought it was good as far as assemblies go, but there was one thing that I found rather ironic. Schools all seem really concerned with remaining entirely secular and entirely seperated from religion, right? But in the presentation it talked about what we are "meant to be". Doesn't that imply some kind of design and therefore a Designer? I found that funny.

Next on the agenda for this entry is school. I'll complain first. My math teacher is horrible! She hardly teaches at all. She just talks about how fun math is and about her life stories. Last Friday, the first 20 minutes of the 40 minute class were spent by her telling us this kind of stuff! The story she spent the most time on was even one that she's told us several times before! I spent the class period darwing a full-page, shaded, three dimensional "HELP!" on the back of my Chem. notes. [goes back and shortens rant] Okay. I'm glad to have that out of my system. I'm finally getting caught up on all the stuff I've missed the times I've been out sick, so I'm happy about that. I decided I needed to drop my Art class though. Alas! :'( Because I am so behind in everything. If I was going to make up my stuff for Art it would take even more forever because most of it is studio time. I will make sure I keep drawing and painting lots on my own.

As I'm sure you all know, this past Sunday was Superbowl Sunday. The Pittsburgh Steelers versus the Seattle Seahawks. The Friday before, they play Steelers hype music on the school annoucments, and in economics class Mr. Fish played Steelers music and let us talk for the beginning of class. Living in Pennsylvania I cheered for the Steelers and... The Steelers won!!! Yipee! Yahoo! Hooray! My heart wasn't really in it for the Steelers though. I was born and raised in Chicago, so I have to support the Bears. I'd really hoped they'd make it to the Superbowl since theyed been doing so well, but they didn't. Oh well. At least the Sox won the World Series. I guess I shouldn't hope for too much in one year.

Finally, I'm finally cleaning my room. It's nice having a floor. I found my stamp collection. I did a bunch of sorting it.

Well, that's about all. I guess I'll be going now.

valete, amici!

Oh. PS. For those who have encouraged me in listening to rock instead of country. I listened to rock last night. I heard a Matchbow Twenty song I liked. It was about being crazy or some such topic. My favorite. :D

valete!

Happy February! Happy Chinese New Year! Happy anything else that's happened since I last posted!

Nothing has happened to me over the past couple days except for school, so I'm going to write on a topic started on Seth's blog and continued first on Heidi Mae's and now on mine.

KNIVES! GUNS! Et cetera! [insert maniacal laughter here]
Because I used to live outside Chicago, I understand the need to carry a weapon for your protection. The problem is, knowing you have a weapon is you tend to do things more rashly, less thinking and such. I carry a knife around everywhere just in case, and I've been taught how to use it by my black belt neighbor who's taught me other karate and how to use a kubotan. Actually, the kubotan keychain is a lot better because it only takes a little training to get the hang of, but it isn't something your opponent would know what to do with if he got it from you. It's basicly just a metal stick with a keychain on the end, but I know some routines with it that could easily end up breaking arm and elbows and such. How's that for cheerful?

valete, amici!

Salve(again)!

Okay, I lied in my previous post. I am going to say some stuff about what I've been doing and what is going on.

A couple days ago while I was home sick I finished a long final paper for my Creative Writing and Speaking on Contemporary Issues class. Our assignment was to write a long persuasive research paper and 10 minute persuasive speech on some controversial issue. I chose to write on why intelligent design provable than the idea of macro evolution and why because of this either both should be taught in schools or neither. It ended up being 8 pages long. It was hard, but I had fun doing the research and writing the paper.

Last night my two brothers went to a cabin campout with our Boy Scout troop. I went to it last year and had a lot of fun, but last year we had the snow and frigid weather that's part of the experience. This year it's almost warm.

Today, I discovered that I had strep. After a couple days of medicine I should feel better.

Well, that about all I have to say. Valate!

Okay, I don't have much of anything to say about what I've been up to, so I'm going to do this thing so all of you can get to know me better. Anyways, what give you the right to know everthing I do?!? Oh, right, I'm the one who decided to post it all on my blog. :P

My five favorite TV shows:
Holiday movie specials
The 6 o'clock news

My five favorite movies:
Narnia
LotR: The Fellowship of the Ring
Star Wars Episode III
Star Wars Episode VI
(I have a couple dozen movies tied for 5th so I won't name any of them)

My five favorite music artists or groups:
Martin Luther
J. S. Bach
Rascal Flatts
Montgomery Gentry
(I seem to have trouble making decisions by fives)

Five of my hobbies:
Drawing
Reading
Writing
Biking
Acting nearly as crazy as I really am.

The five places I most want to visit:
Italy (next year with my Latin IV class)
Colorado Springs, Colorado (this summer for the Higher THings conference)
Germany
Scotland or Ireland
Canada (again)

Hello again.

I'm just going to leave a quickish post, so you know I'm alive. Sunday we had bible study and serivice of course. I served as acolyte again.

Monday I went to school early in the morning after a week out sick. That week was the week of review before midterms, so that was bad. I found out my first semester english elective doesn't have a midterm. I could have come to school at 9:45 instead of getting on the bus at 6:55. I found out that my second midterm that day was Chem. not Precalc, so I didn't have the right stuff to study while I sat around for a hour and a half. I decided that I was ready for Chem when my teacher asked, took the exam, and I'd guess I got about a 95% on it. Pretty easy. I then had an afternoon to work on make up homework and study.

Tuesday I had a full school day, but only made it to a couple classes because I was making up my Math and Social Studies midterms. The classes I was in I felt pretty lost having missed just over a week. I probably got about a 90% or 95% on the Precalc midterm exam. I just know I'm close to flunking on my History exam. It was horribly hard. Horrible.

I have a lot of work to keep working on, so I'll leave it at that. Heidi M., you're going to be sorry when you get back from your computer strike. I've left a bunch of stuff in your inbox, emails on the MH list, and posts on the Higher Things forums.

Until I see you all again, goodbye.

I just had an unusual experience. I saw a little boy come up to the door and stand there looking in for about a minute, then I went over and opened the door. He said, "Here's a menu for Al's Pizza. Bye" and just walked away. What's up with that?

Sickening. I am sick. Tuesday I got sent home by the school nurse and I’ve been sick since. I went to the doctor today and he said I had a virus, a sinus infection, and a fever of 101 degrees Fahrenheit. Maybe that’s why I’m delusional. ;) I’m supposed to stay home to recuperate tomorrow, which means that I’ll have to make up my first day of midterm exams. I must have picked it up over last weekend when I went to the Higher Things conference. Oh well, not much I can do but go to bed now and get sleep. Tomorrow I’ll try to figure out why the really LONG blog entry I posted about the conference never showed up. Ugh. I hate being sick. Good night.

Greetings Friends! I have a lot to tell about since I last posted. I won't waste too much time with formalities but will go straight to the telling. This is going to be my longest post yet, so if you read all of it then leave a comment saying so. I’ll be very proud of you.

Most of last week was rather uneventful. Tuesday and Thursday, I had detentions for tardies to school, but I'm working on that. I just need to make sure I don't hit the snooze button quite so many times in the morning.

Thursday as soon as I got home things really got jumping. The instant I got home I ran down to my room to pack. Unable to find the suitcase I usually use, I had to settle for a significantly smaller one. Within 10 minutes, I had stuffed my suitcase and backpack and was ready to go. I discovered later that I had forgotten my Bible and catechism, two things very useful for a weekend youth retreat, but only leaving those was pretty good for me. My mother, one brother, and I drove four hours from our mid-PA home to our English friends now living in Pittsburgh. We handled the basic formalities and then went to bed (or so I thought). Later I discovered that the others had stayed up to watch some of Napoleon Dynamite, but I had needed my sleep.

Friday morning was self-serve. Dorothy, the daughter a little younger than me, got up early to go to school for a half day. There was also a half day at my school, but I skipped legally. Rev. and Mrs. Naumann got up a little later to go to their jobs at the nearest LCMS church. My family, David, and Nigel got up and had breakfast at various times through the morning. My mom picked Dorothy up from school at 11:00 while I made soup for lunch. After lunch, we loaded everything into our car and went to the church to join the rest of the group going to the Higher Things conference. We left the church at about 2:00. The group went in two vehicles. Two leaders, my brother Nathan, and I were in Mr. Toft’s car. The other two adults and the four girls went in the gas SUV, which I later found out had a built in TV and DVD player. The seven hour trip actually went by fairly quickly even without a TV. We had substantial conversations about politics, evolution, movies, etc. We stopped at Panera Bread restaurant for supper.

At 9:00, we finally arrived in Indianapolis. After sight-seeing in a few local parking lots, we found the entrance to our hotel and unloaded our bags. We knew we would miss many of the events Friday evening, and we had. We missed dinner, the conference opening, evening service, and the first catechesis session; but we made in time for the movie, the last event of the evening. Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a very good movie. After the movie, a couple friends I made at Dare to be Lutheran spotted me and we talked for a little. We stuck together for most of the rest of the weekend. My brother and I roomed with Dan, a guy from one of the Indiana youth groups.

Saturday, the main day of conference events, started with a nice breakfast in Advent Lutheran’s fellowship hall. Thank you to Advent Lutheran for all the stuff you contributed to the conference . We then had a service following the order of Matins in the LCMS hymnal that will be coming out soon. I love those pure liturgical worship services! We had the second of Rev. Klemet Preus’ catechesis sessions on arguing (the whole weekend conference was based on arguing for Jesus), a presentation on arguing in spite of race and religious differences by Rev. Bullard, and wonderful lecture on the validity of the bible by a pastor whose name I don’t remember. I took a whole bunch of notes on all of it. We then had lunch, another bit of catechizing, and some free time during which I went to the local high school gym with a group going over to play dodge ball. The final “break away session” was on arguing with teachers and in classes. It focused more on college than high school, but was still good. Vespers followed this session. Dinner was wonderful fare of salad, lasagna, green beans, and cake served in a nice dimmed setting with candles on all the tables. The fourth catechesis was “Arguing about Jesus among Ourselves”. It was a panel presenting unified worship (standardized liturgy, traditional hymns, and such) versus diversified worship (more varied and contemporary Gr.. ;0) ). After timed-limited opening positions and responses there was time for people to ask questions of the two pastors. We then had a social mixer hosted by Advent’s youth group. There were tables set up all over with different games on them, a couple video game system set ups, a table with blank T-shirts and fabric markers, and people walking around trying to find people to play game they themselves had brought. I managed to find three other people to play Euchre, my favorite card game. In the last couple of minutes before we went to Evening Prayer, I scrawled “Higher Things: 2006 Winter Retreat” on a T-shirt, and had a couple of my friends write messages on it and sign it. By 11 o’clock, we were all scheduled to be in our rooms with the lights off, but in actuality there were parties held in several rooms until just after midnight.

Sunday morning we had time to eat the nice bagged breakfast we had picked up the night before. I didn’t though. The alarm I’d set for 7:00 never went off. I woke up at 7:35, woke Nathan, showered, got dressed, and ran down to meet up with the rest of our group. I wore my mostly purple with pink, maroon, indigo, and teal organically patterned custom tailored Thai silk shirt from Thailand, silk black slacks, and nice stiff dress shoes (I had to mention the shoes in case Jay is reading this). We had a liturgical high-church type service following the second setting for Divine Service in Lutheran Worship. We then had the last Catechesis session, packed a bag lunch from provisions provided for all by Advent, and hit the road for the long trip back to Pittsburgh. We got back and were picked up from the church by Mrs. Naumann and my mom. We had chili supper and soon thereafter went to bed like the good children we aren’t.

My mother had told Mrs. Naumann about the unspeakable outcome of my Nicol family pancake challenge, so I was drafted to make pancakes Monday morning. I got up early and made the pancakes (from a mix this time). Everyone seemed to like them, but I thought the mix was a bit flavorless. I think I’ve made just as many meal at the Naumanns as I’ve eaten meals made by them. After breakfast we gathered up our stuff and drove the four hours back home accompanied by a bag of snacks we’d been given because their family didn’t like them. I don’t mind though. I eat just about anything. We got home, I played a game of basketball and a few round of knockout my a big group of teens in my neighborhood, and wrote this.

I’ll finish this here. I think I have a bit of a cold, but hopefully it won’t become any worse.

valete amici! manete bene!

Salvete! Spero vos estis bene.
Greetings! I hope you all are well.

Yesterday I received this in a forwarded piece of email. I am very skeptical of information I find on the internet. Usually I wouldn't post this kind of stuff on my blog, but I found this funny even though it probably did not occur.

One day, a six-year-old girl was sitting in a classroom. The teacher was explaining evolution to the children. The teacher asked a little boy:
TEACHER: Tommy, do you see the tree outside?
TOMMY: Yes
TEACHER: Tommy, do you see the grass outside?
TOMMY: Yes.
TEACHER: Go outside and look up and see if you can see the sky.
TOMMY: Okay. [He returned after a couple minutes] Yes, I saw the sky.
TEACHER: Did you see GOD?
TOMMY: No.
TEACHER: That's my point. We can't see GOD because HE isn't there. HE just doesn't exist.
[A little girl spoke up wanting to ask the boy some questions. The teacher agreed.]
LITTLE GIRL: Tommy, do you see the tree outside?
TOMMY: Yes.
LITTLE GIRL: Tommy do you see the grass outside?
TOMMY: Yesss!
LITTLE GIRL: Did you see the sky?
TOMMY: Yesss!
LITTLE GIRL: Tommy, do you see the Teacher?
TOMMY:Yes
LITTLE GIRL: Do you see her brain?
TOMMY: No.
LITTLE GIRL: Then according to what we were taught today, she doesn't have one.

I find it unlikely that a first or second grade teacher would send a student outside for a few minutes by himself, and just as unlikely the six year-old girl would be able to think through the concept that deeply. Still, though, it's funny and a good illustration of Second Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight".

No doubt about it, for a weekend these past couple days have felt busy enough to be school days.

Saturday night everybody I know seemed to be out of character. I made this discovery while IMing a whole bunch of people at once. Chatty people being quiet, unconversational and quiet people turned glib, happy people who were really depressed, and people acting overly sad and philosophical. I girl I knew back when we lived in Ohio but who I hadn't talked to for monthes suddenly was talking to me a ton as well as asking me some pretty awkward questions. You all know you what was up with yourselves, but could somebody please tell me what was going on???

"Glory to God in the highest..." Sunday everything was back to normal. We had another wonderful liturgical worship service at our liturgical church with almost all of it being chanted or sung from LW's Divine Service II. I served up by the altar as acolyte and as one of the torch bearers in the procession we had today. It being the first Sunday of Epiphany, my father preached a sermon dealing jointly with the Epiphany and with baptism. I thought it was one of his best sermons even before he told me that he had accidentally left his copy of it in his office. Today was also one of the Sundays we had a coffee social (delectable homemade snacks, punch, and coffee) after the service.

After most of the people had left church and my dad was done talking, I drove with my dad (Actually, I got to drive) to the hospital to visit a member who was there after having pneumonia and some heart trouble. It was kind of nice to see what my dad does in between Sundays and to talk to Mr. Brown and his wife a bit.

Finally, I came home where I've been the rest of the day. We put away most of the Christmas ornaments, and I worked a lot more on the big semester projects that are going to be due this week.

Valete amici!

PS. Does anyone but Heidi read my blog? I've told a lot of you you should, but I haven't been getting enough comments to believe that you all are.

Goodnight!

Good afternoon, or morning if you live out West. And three cheers for the weekend!

You may be asking, what has Aaron been up to? He hasn't posted in four days.

Well, the main answer is school work. :( As I said in my last post, I was sick. After a missed day of school, a long Christmas break, and two more days of missed school I was way behind. I spent the rest of the week catching up on mountains of homework. I still need to do some reading to figure out some of the concepts I missed in my Trig and Latin classes.

Friday night we borrowed The Sound of Music from our library for the pizza/movie/family night that we have weekly on either Friday or Saturday. We've seen it before, but I like the classic movies.

Know what else I love? Classical literature! I'm almost always reading 3 or 4 books at a time, and one of them is alway one of the classics. Right now I'm reading 5 boooks: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Pearls of Lutra by Brian Jaques, a recent translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, and probably my favorite of the bunch Why I am a Lutheran by Rev. Daniel Preus. Reading is so much fun!

Heid, I know there are a lot of famous writers of American and English literature, and there are at least a few French and Russian such. Are there any Canadians though? I've never heard of any Canadian writers at all.

I think my anti-virus software (AVG) is paranoid. Recently it's been automatically going online several times a day to update it's virus defenitions. Maybe it caught a virus.

My knee is hurting a little again, but at least I am most ceratinly not ill any more. That's about all a can think of to say.

Valete omnes!

Okay, it's late. I can't get to sleep, so I'm quickly going to do this blog entry for yesterday (January 3rd).

It was supposed to be the day I returned to school from Christmas vacation. I was entirely ready to return, but there's a catch. I'm sick. I hope it's only a couple day cold, but that's what I thought last year. Last year I ended up missing about 6 or 7 weeks of school instead of the couple days I first thought I'd be missing. The doctors never did figure out just what I had. Anyway, instead of going to school I spent all day alternating sleeping and working on the big semester projects who's due dates are coming up. As one friend put it, it was a "God provided research day". Hopefully, I'll feel better in the morning.

I've started actively posting in the Higher Things forums. I've had an account there for several months, but hadn't used it.

Oh. One more thing before I go. I am working my way through the Seth provided red tape to join the Anti-Olive Brigade. We even talked about possibly forming an alliance of the Anti-Olive Brigade and the Peep Killing Forces. Seth seems like an okay kid, but he wants to take over the world or be supreme dictator or something like that, which is obviously a mislead goal since I'm destined to either control the world or destroy. On the light note, Goodnight!

It is time. I will now proceed to go on and on about last year. I will make no promises about length because I've already broken all my previous promises about blog entry lengths. Don't be surprised if I start getting philosophical, poetical, or even break into song and dance while reflecting on my 2005. If you read the Christmas letter this may be a bit repetitive, but I tried to mention some different things. Friends, Romans, citizens, and random passersby lend me your ears.

Nothing much happened last year until May. Mother’s Day marked two years since my dad was installed as pastor at Calvary in Mechanicsburg. It is painful to think of best friends I had and hardly or never hear from. In Chicago I had the closest friends and loved the scorching summers and crisp winters with deep snows. In Medina I could bike anywhere in under 15 minutes, and everyone in town was a caring neighbor. Maybe retrospect isn’t 20/20; instead it seems to magnify both vice and virtue. On the 28th of May, my dad turned 53. It’s sad to see my parents getting older and weaker already. On a lighter note, my brother Nathan had his confirmation and is now a communing member of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

Summer was very busy to say the least. It began with Joel reaching his teen years on the first of July. Four of my cousins, my brother, and I went to St. Louis for the 2005 Higher Things’ conference, Dare to be Lutheran. The sectionals on various teen issues, magnificent liturgical worship services several times a day, and the time with family all made for a wonderful experience. [breaks into song and dance (I warned you that might happen)] On the July 28, I turned 17. I am now to the point of begging my parents on hands and knees to let me get my driver’s license and a cell phone. As of now, I have been driving with only a permit for 18 months and had to go back and renew my permit.

Following the conference, we hooked up with my mom’s sister and her sister’s family. We traveled together on a 2000-mile plus loop out further to the west. We spent a week in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains where our dad flew in to meet us for the rest of the trip. Here we celebrated mom’s 51st Birthday. We also got to visit some of dad’s family whom we rarely get to see. We then spent a couple weeks traveling through much of the United States’ Midwest. We returned to Aunt Bonnie’s for the extended family’s camp out.

After nearly a month gone, we returned home for a week before spending another week in Ohio for a LCMS homeschoolers gathering and saw many of our friends from when we lived in Medina. After this exhausting vacation, we were glad to return to our home in PA for the few days of summer remaining.

Far too early the school year began again. I am still pressing on thru classes at our little local high school of 2,500. I do have some fun classes as well as clubs that make school fairly enjoyable, particularly Latin III, Art II, and the Teenage Republicans club. Beginning of this fall, we stopped taking piano lessons. The man we were going to was more concert pianist than he was teacher, so I personally think I can learn to play more complicated music on my own as fast as I was learning with him. I know I know my musical theory. Additionally, with my parents’ permission and money, I want to begin taking guitar and maybe even voice lessons. In the BSA I have moved up to Venture Crew. This is the next level up in the BSA in terms of activities. October 28 Nathan turned 15 completing our odd year and prompting his decision to join mom and me in our church’s small choir where I sing Bass.

In November I became more active again with MouthHouse. I revived the Peep War, and reorganized the P.K.F. (Peep Killing Forces). I also have helped out a bit in the somewhat dormant Llama Crusade and am interested in joining the Anti-Olive group I just found out about.

The Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons I have already written about in great detail, so I will not tire you by repeating it. Please comment. I appreciate hearing what people have to say about my life.

P.S. By the ninth day of Christmas everyone with a true love has nine dancing ladies, sixteen milking maids, twenty-one wet swans, twenty-four geese, twenty-five gold rings, twenty-four song birds, twenty-one hens, sixteen turtle doves, and nine partridges each in it's own fruit bearing pear tree.

Seven wet swans, six laying geese, five gold plated rings, and four obnoxious birds. Yes, I am frugal, if not cheap, in giving my true love her presents. Sorry true love. I hope all of you are having a Merry 7th Day of Christ's Mass!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We just returned from my aunt and uncle's house in Napoleon, Ohio where my uncle is pastor at the LCMS church. Here we are having my mom's family's annual Christmas gathering. We spent all of the 28th traveling. About halfway through the trip we dropped off my dad's mom and stop for a little to visit familiar places and people in Medina, Ohio. We lived in Medina from late 2000 to early 2003. It was a nice little town where I could bike to anywhere in or around town within 15 minutes. After our stop there, we finished the trip from mid-PA to here by 7:00 pm.

Wednesday night, two of the older cousins and I watched War of the Worlds and played video games all night. Thursday morning I drove into town with my cousin Chris to run some errands and drop off a gift at a Christmas party his favorite teacher was hosting. When we returned to the house, we had my mom's wonderful taco stew for lunch and opened most of the gifts. In the cousin's gift exchange, I got a reading light that automatically shuts off after the amount of time for which you set it. I'm sure that it will get a lot of use. My Aunt Patty gave me a $10 gift card for Wal-Mart and my grandparents gave all their grandkids $10, a little devotion, and a nice new wallet. Chris and I then dropped Kyle of at basketball practice and spent a little more time in town.

Most of the day Friday was just spent relaxing. We played video games and rented Kingdom of Heaven, a really good movie about the Crusades, and played video games. In the evening, we went to the Napoleon High basketball games against Patrick-Henry High School. The Napoleon Wildcats freshman and JV teams won, but the 'Cats Varsity team lost by three points due to stupid substitutions by the Napoleon coaches. I had fun yelling the occasional "Go C.V. Eagles!!!" since my team wasn't playing.

Saturday after lunch, we left Napoleon, OH for Pittsburgh, PA. We reached Pittsburgh at about 7pm. We checked into a hotel, unloaded the van, ate dinner, and went to the Naumanns’ house. The Naumanns are old friends of my mom's who moved here from England a few years ago. They have six children, five boys and one girl. The older boys were just visiting from England, and the one who is my mother's godson was preaching (he's in his fourth year at seminary). At their house, we played more video games and some card games. I won the first game of Phase 10 I've ever played.

Sunday we went to bible study and services, heard Gordon preach, and left immediately afterwards for the five hour trip home. And that’s about all I can say. I could add more description, but I need to go soon. Have fun y’all!