Surprises

Sometimes life throws little surprises at you. They may or may not be good or well planned, but we can always laugh at them and move on knowing our life has been made more interesting.

Sarah, this one's for you.

-包

Testing 1, 2, 2 1/2, 2 3/4, 2 7/8, 3!

Hello,
You are my guinea pigs. I might as well be honest. I still care about you, but being my first blog readers, you get to try out new things. :) Like emailing posts to my blog! hurray!
Being my first readers, I'll let you in on a highly well-known secret (sarcasm cough). I'm going to start a new blog about all about going to China! Please, make sure it feels welcome; the new kid on the block is always the last one picked. More information latah (When I have it).
Over and out,
Miguel
Cool photo! (don't know if it will work)

CAPS LOCK

"Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine."  ~Robert C. Gallagher

I've almost forgotten how to write.  Two days on summer vacation can do that.

~~~

Welcome to my humble and insignificant cookery of words.

Yes, I know that we bake cookies; not cook cookies.

I'm still going to call this place a cookery.

Besides, a bakie just sounds healthy or something.

Anywho, 

Because I haven't written in so long I probably deserve to be shoved in the pouch of a kangaroo and have flying monkeys hooked on crack lick my eyeballs for the rest of my life. 

Unfortunately, I have still maintained my ability to make random, slightly dull jokes.

~~~

I know that I've changed. This past year of high school has made me into someone different. Perhaps not for better or worse, but definitely different. There's this certain feeling I get whenever I look at last year's yearbook and see myself smiling back from a face I almost don't recognize. I see all of my friends smiling at me, braces and all, and then I come to my picture. I always feel this mixture of surprise-at how much I've grown, loss-for all those good, stress free times I will never have back, and gain-at how much more attractive I look.

A couple of things that did change me this year for the better, however were:

made the school tennis team

2,000 dollar college scholarship 

ballroom dance 

had an awesome Chinese class

made friends with some amazing people

stayed friends with equally amazing people

learned how to do a back-flip

accepted to study Chinese in Shanghai for part of the summer <  as;lfiukha'lfn'pjafS"F:binS"DLf;algnbZDGFBS:FRJB:dlfjgna;bndg;ghfesan^gj] 

** Ahem, that was me expressing pure, compressed excitement for the last thing on my list.

I'm, um, going to China. I'M GOING TO CHINA!

HOORRAH!

COME ON!

CAPS LOCK!

I'll be startin' a blog all about my adventures in China, so I won't go into this very much. 

a;sdlgjfa (;slfg*&na;lsnb'a!@#$%d'b%&vah' spif *

I have to get it out of my system somehow...

                                                       

~~~

Well, as I was saying:

Times have changed, people have changed, and hopefully your socks have been changed.

And that's about it.

I'm still here

sort of...
I haven't posted in over a month. Sorry about that.
My life has just been moving forward. With movements up, down, side to side, and inside out. It's almost like a rollercoaster. But this rollercoaster never stops. And I can control it with a little exertion.
That's about it.
This has been Five Minutes with a Mike 'n Ike.
Water Tribe.

How Firm a Foundation (that Jenga requires)

Chapstick is an amazing substance.
It has saved my lips on more than one occasion.
I especially enjoy flavored chapstick. It's like a candle that you can eat.

Anyways, I digress.
Hello!
I am amazed you are still reading this post.

Today I drove over the river and through the woods (or, over the railroad tracks and through the rain) to my grandmothers house with my siblings to visit. It was the best decision I made all week. Not only did I get to play Jenga and test my creative architectural skills, I also found that almost nothing is more fulfilling than spending a Sunday night with family I love.
(We made it to 30 levels high of Jenga... Hoorah!)

(a little tower I built)

(the only one that didn't get knocked over...)

After Jenga, My grandmother shared some stories of her mother's childhood in The Great Depression. It was humbling to hear all the things she lived without. It made me think how blessed I am to live in my circumstances.

I hope everyone else had a great Sunday! Mine was made even better with the knowledge that we have no school tomorrow! The tennis courts are beckoning.

adieu

-MDB

Inspiration

Humbling, inspiring, invigorating, freaking awesome.
It makes me realize how much farther I have to go.

Now, time to do some math homework.
Thanks!
Goodnight.
晚安

Ok. I decided to finish.

Here is all of that story.

[Insert Cool Title Here]

By Michael Boyd

Michael was a fairly normal person. As a gangly, 16 year old teenager trying to survive high school, he enjoyed weekends with the passion of seventy synchronized panda bear skydivers. In case the reader of this post does not have experience with skydiving pandas, let an experienced observer tell this individual that this is quite a bit of passion. Anyways, I digress. One Friday night, Michael returned home from a splendid birthday party totally exhausted. He slowly walked to his basement room and collapsed on his bed. As he fell asleep, the only thought that wrapped around his mind was how happy his life was.

Bang Bang Bang BANG. "Mommy look!" Bang Bang....Bang........Thump.

            These were roughly the sounds Michael heard as he abruptly entered consciousness early the next day.  He blearily looked around and sat up. The chaos upstairs sounded like his 2 year old brother was building a rocket in the living room. Michael listened harder and recalled that last night his father had given his brother a hammer, some nails, and a couple of 2 by 4's. Michael had no idea why a 2 year would need this equipment, but he did know that it was loud. And it sounded like his brother was only getting started.

             Michael grabbed at the earplugs that resided on his bedside table and efficiently put them in like only an experienced user could. He immediately dropped off into a dream. Michael dreamed of airplane bombers that had orders to blow his house into the troposphere. In reality, the snores of Michael harmonized almost impeccably with the blows from his brother's hammer.

            Three hours later, Michael Boyd awoke to find a silent house and the smell of pot stickers in the air. He wondered whether he was still dreaming. It seemed too good to be true. As Michael looked at his clock, he faintly heard sirens a far way off. The clock said 11:20 A.M. Michael got out of bed and stretched heartily. This was the sleep he had needed. Michael walked out of his room and stiffly climbed the stairs to the kitchen. The smell of Asian food was making his stomach grumble. As Michael got to the top of the stairs, he looked around.

            He had been planning to say "Hey everyone, I'm up!"

           But as Michael looked around the remnant of his kitchen, all he managed to blurt out was "hehblckshplurgh"

            The entire upper portion of his house, from the ground up, was completely obliterated. He could see the neighbor's dog looking curiously at him through was used to be his kitchen wall. All that was left was a dented, dusty refrigerator. He turned to face his living room. This was where the worst damage was. A blackened crater in the ground marked what used to be his living room. In the center of this crater was a small, worn hammer. Michael slowly walked out around the house and marveled at how little was left. Not knowing what else to do, Michael stumbled to the front door, which was miraculously still standing, tried to open it, and though it simply fell down, he went to check the mail. The dog followed him through the debris. 

            As Michael looked around he saw his neighbors staring at him. They gaped at him with thunderstruck awe. As Michael stared back, they slowly closed their blinds and became once again engulfed inside their large, whole, homes.

            The dog stared up at Michael. Michael stared at the dog. Michael noticed the dog’s name was Jerry. Michael and Jerry continued onwards. It was amazing how normal the day seemed, besides the burnt shell of a home behind them. As Michael neared the mailbox, he saw the flag was up. Jerry and Michael quickened their pace. As Michael looked in the mailbox, he saw there was only one letter in the box. Surprisingly there was no address or name on the front. Michael grabbed it and sat down on a nearby chunk of his former house.

Michael opened the letter. It read:

            Dear Michael,

If you are reading this letter, you have probably found that our house is long gone. This was my doing. I am Nathan. Your little brother. Please, do not be too surprised. For the two years I have been alive, I have learned and understood more than most children my age. For some random, divine, or perfect reason, I have been granted a mind that is far beyond the normal capacity of normal human thought. I can fluently speak French, Chinese, English, and Vulcan. I have passed college through online courses and created a well known internet identity that I use to publish scientific essays and theories. By using my intellect, I have been able to create a house that will function normally in space. After about 4 months of preparation, I put into action my plan to remodel our house into my astrohouse. This is my test flight. Hopefully you are taking this pretty well. You may be wondering where you come into my plans. See, I need someone at home to prepare the landing pad for my return. I ordered tickets to Disneyland for the rest of our family; they left as you were napping. I planned it so they thought you were flying in later this week. You are the most trusted person in my family. Last night I drugged your hot chocolate with a strong sedative so you would sleep later this morning. I will be home in approximately 3 days. After I get home, we can fly to Disneyland and our family will not suspect anything. Hopefully you are doing well, and don’t worry about me at all. I will be fine.

            Sincerely,

Nathan.

Michael finished the letter and it fluttered to the ground as he tried to comprehend it all. 

Jerry, his new best friend, looked up at him expectantly. Michael looked down and whispered, “Well Jerry, we have a lot of work to do.” Michael got up and walked back to his downstairs room.

           

Journeys

I saw this painting a couple of days ago, and it really touched me. We are all travelers on this earth. Each one of us hikes his or her own trail through the vast chaos of our world. Our beautiful world. Sometimes we get lost. Our trail may be hard to see at times. Sometimes our trails intersect one another.

 We walk in  various directions. This trail was not necessarily designed with a destination in mind. We are here for the journey. It will test us, trip us, and confuse us. At the same time, the miraculous beauty and complexity of the hike will inspire. 

By continuing forward, we accomplish our purpose. The purpose of our journey.

Have a nice week! 

Photoshop Hour!

Have you ever taken a class in school that seemed rather exciting  but turned out to be pretty much a study hour? 

I did. 

Last year. 

It was called "Computer Skills".  We got to learn how to use Microsoft Excel! And... (*drum roll*). Microsoft Word! 

~~

Halfway through the year, I decided to rename it "Photoshop Hour!" 

This was one hour of the day when I could use Photoshop at the school to my heart's content. Needless to say, we got pretty creative (or desperate) 

These are some of the things I came up with in about 45 minutes or less:

 

This is why there's a voting age limit.

In the Near Future?

Maybe I'll post some more of my "art" later.

What do you think? 

\

Over and Out.

~MDB

Musical Deliciousness

Hey! 
I get to perform my diabolo (Chinese yoyo) at the talent show in a couple of days...
But, I'm having troubles coming up with a really good song. Can you help me out? 
I have been looking for a song that people enjoy listening to, has a beat, and keeps them entertained.
I have a couple of choices, and I'm not totally certain which one to choose. If you would like to listen to these choices (below), or at least like 20 seconds, and if you are totally busy, maybe even just read the titles, I would be eternally grateful. 

Everybody who lives in the modern world will know at least a  couple of these songs. 

Go ahead, press play, and feel free to listen at your leisure as you happily surf the web. 
Thanks!   

Handlebars

Can't Touch This

Move it

Ammon's choice:

Palladio

Recognize this song? 

Magic

Explosive

Discombobulate

The Distance

 A Bit Randomer,

One Week

On a softer note,

Mad World

Which one do you like best? 

Thanks for listening! 

Comment below!

"Bigger is Better" but "Less is More." ( This statement is entirely based upon the situation...) (Who came up with this anyway?)

Thank you to those certain people who came, helped, or thought about our Chinese New Year celebration. It was a big success.

Now, I am going to go and enjoy my Saturday. Stay sweet people J don’t do drugs, eat too many burritos, or cross the road without looking both ways.

I have nothing humorous to create today. My fingers are ready to stop typing. But, if anyone follows my Facebook profile, I made a comment about ping pong ball scents.

I will just say again. Ping Pong ball innards are just about the coolest thing I have ever smelled. I probably should stop talking now.

Now, a bit of an inspirational video:

D

o

n

e

!

Thank you very much. 

Llamas

 Hello! First, here is some music to help with reader satisfaction. Yes, it's a video... but I don't know how to upload music yet. You may skip right over this, listen as you read the post, or simply listen and watch the cool video.:

I drew a picture today!

Procrastination inspires creativity. Not very much productivity though.

This picture is dedicated to Miranda.
And to her future echidna friend.

For those who may not know what an echidna is, you are in good company. I didn't either, until about 2 minutes ago.

 

This is an echidna. They look so happy! To bad they're endangered...

On the more creative side...
Now is the part of the show where Michael comes out, and recites a haiku or two.

I thought of these after seeing the flower things that people (mostly girls) are wearing in their hair these days. It made me think of spring and warm weather. It was seven degrees today!
Well, here goes:

Sunflowers blossom,
What will they say to the sun?
Shine, that I may climb.

When the sun does down,
Half the earth will say fairwell
For the moon brings peace.

Unusual dreams,
Carry me on soaring wing,
Inspiration blooms.


And... now I end.

Haikus

For Engrish Class....
But I like them just enough to share them with the world ( the seven something people who read this minuscule blog).

These are in relation to the right brain left brain blurb.

The left brained person,

Logical and observant,

Loves order and peace.

Right brained creators,

Sing, dance, makers of chaos,

Thinkers of deep thought.

Middle brain keepers,

Surely walk the fence, bonding

Chaos and order.

Enjoy.

Peace out. 

Headbang! 

P.S.

Boredom tip:

Drive around town with the windows open and blast Bach at full volume with the sub woofer turned to the max. Record the number of head turns. Extra points for hydraulic suspension or wearing 19th century wigs.

The Weekend

  Michael was a fairly normal person. As a gangly, 16 year old teenager trying to survive high school, he enjoyed weekends with the passion of seventy synchronized panda bear skydivers. In case the reader of this post does not have experience with skydiving pandas, let an experienced observer tell this individual that this is quite a bit of passion. Anyways, I digress. One Friday night, Michael returned home from a splendid birthday party totally exhausted. He slowly walked to his basement room and collapsed on his bed. As he fell asleep, the only thought that wrapped around his mind was how happy his life was.

Bang Bang Bang BANG. "Mommy look!" Bang Bang....Bang........Thump. "Oops"

  These were roughly the sounds Michael heard as he abruptly entered consciousness early the next day.  He blearily looked around and sat up. The chaos upstairs sounded like his 2 year old brother was building a rocket in the living room. Michael listened harder and recalled that last night his father had given his brother a hammer, some nails, and a couple of 2 by 4's. Michael had no idea why a 2 year would need this equipment, but he did know that it was loud. And it sounded like his brother was only getting started.

  Michael grabbed at the earplugs that resided on his bedside table and efficiently put them in like only an experienced user could. He immediately dropped off into a dream. Michael dreamed of airplane bombers that had orders to blow his house into the troposphere. In reality, the snores of Michael harmonized almost impeccably with the blows from his brother's hammer.

  Three hours later, Michael Boyd awoke to find a silent house and the smell of potstickers in the air. He wondered whether he was still dreaming. It seemed too good to be true. As Michael looked at his clock, he faintly heard sirens a far way off. The clock said 11:20 A.M. Michael got out of bed and stretched heartily. This was the sleep he had needed. Michael walked out of his room and stiffly climbed the stairs to the kitchen. The smell of Asian food was making his stomach grumble. As Michael got to the top of the stairs, he looked around.

 He had been planning to say "Hey everyone, I'm up!"

But as Michael looked around the remnant of his kitchen, all he managed to blurt out was "hehblckshplurgh"

 The entire upper portion of his house, from the ground up, was completely obliterated. He could see the neighbor's dog looking curiously at him through was used to be his kitchen wall. All that was left was a dented, dusty refrigerator. He turned to face his living room. This was where the worst damage was. A blackened crater in the ground marked what used to be his living room. In the center of this crater was a small, worn hammer. Michael slowly walked out around the house and marveled at how little was left. Not knowing what else to do, Michael stumbled to the front door, which was miraculously still standing, tried to open it, and though it simply fell down, he went to check the mail.

~~~

To be continued. (Maybe)

Based on a true story. (Very loosely)

~

Hopefully this is relatively cohesive and somewhat entertaining.

Thank you for reading! :)

Eh? Yeh.

So,
Ello!
I have decided to create a post about certain things I love. And HATE!!!
I love...toothpicks. (And many more things, but this was the first thing that came to mind. Therefore, I will write mostly about toothpicks)

They are soooo useful and can be used for many things other than dental hygiene.
Let's get creative here.
Toothpicks could be used for:

• A substitute for a quill.
• Firewood!
• Earrings.
• Paint them green and you could have artificial grass!
• Linkin' logs (yes, this is entirely made of toothpicks)
• Very thin friends (name them then place them randomly about your room)
• Very thin enemies (Caution: highly flammable... name them, then 'MWAHAHAHA')
• Utensils (sharp, pointy, and perfect for carrying bite-sized samples)
• Darts (sharp, pointy, and perfect for carrying poisonous substances)
• Jenga blocks
• A picket fence
• Castle defenses

Ok, it's a stretch.

I HATE... cold fingers.

When I have cold fingers (such as now), I can't:
 Play the piano
Write
t Y ppp E
Get my fingers warm
Even feel my fingers

But I can:
Put them on my siblings' necks and watch them transform into my minions
Use my finger as a hammer
Drink hot chocolate ( I feel justified)
Throw snowballs
Use them as renewable ice cubes

Anyways.
This is my brain on enough sleep.
I get random.
The End!
Goodbye.

Tacos

Ladies and Gentleman, Writers and Boxers, Hat-Makers and Smarty Pants,
Righties and Lefties, Critics and Observers, Tacos and Cheese Burgers,
Today is Thursday!
The first day of the beginning of the end of the week!
To ease the stress that perhaps many individuals may have at this point in time, I found a happy little video showcasing a rather large friend.
Kronk!!

To begin, press play.
Now take a deep breath, hold it in, wait, and burst out laughing at your leisure.
Enjoy!

(Anyone know how to make Spinach Puffs?)

-CBF

Walking the Fence

They say curiosity killed the cat, but they never say whether the cat planned his last adventure into another world.
I was curious to see how my brain functions. See, I am a left-handed person, and therefore I should statistically be right brain{ish). So I went to a certain testing site to find out just how crazy I am.
I was pretty happy and interested with the results.  The copy and paste didn't work out so well, but it shows the information.
Fellow writers,
Curiosity doesn't kill. It creates.
(No cats were harmed in the writing of this post )

Thank you for taking the Creativity Test. The results show your brain dominance as being: Left Brain Right Brain 47% 53% Now we get to read a bunch of words that say I am creative but still a pretty logical person. In a random way. Hurray!!! You are more right-brained than left-brained. The right side of your brain controls the left side of your body. In addition to being known as right-brained, you are also known as a creative thinker who uses feeling and intuition to gather information. You retain this information through the use of images and patterns. You are able to visualize the "whole" picture first, and then work backwards to put the pieces together to create the "whole" picture. Your thought process can appear quite illogical and meandering. The problem-solving techniques that you use involve free association, which is often very innovative and creative. The routes taken to arrive at your conclusions are completely opposite to what a left-brained person would be accustomed. You probably find it easy to express yourself using art, dance, or music. Some occupations usually held by a right-brained person are forest ranger, athlete, beautician, actor/actress, craftsman, and artist. If you want to be special like me and take this crazy test, go to this site  Kaboom.  My complete evaluation follows below (A bunch of random stats and way-to-in-depth percentages) Your left brain/right brain percentage was calculated by combining the individual scores of each half's sub-categories. They are as follows: Your Left Brain Percentages   50% Symbolic (Your most dominant characteristic)   50% Logical   32% Linear   27% Sequential   27% Reality-based   7% Verbal (Your least dominant characteristic) Your Right Brain Percentages   50% Random (Your most dominant characteristic)   46% Concrete   38% Nonverbal   36% Fantasy-oriented   29% Intuitive   24% Holistic (Your least dominant characteristic) -Creatively, eMki Odby