Okay, so maybe I won't be running cross country next school year.
But don't worry, I have a good reason.
I'm not afraid of the training, or the pressure, or anything like that - It's just that soccer happened.
For whatever reason, Lakeside has never had a soccer team. However, due to some interest, and a new soccer-loving teacher, we're getting a shot next year.
There will only be one team, and due to this being the first year of the program, it will only be a JV team. Luckily, seniors are allowed to play, so I have a shot at playing soccer in high school after all.
And there are a lot of benefits to playing soccer at Lakeside for me. The coach, also one of my favorite teachers, explained to my friend - one of the 5 or so other seniors who have expressed interest - that he's looking for some senior leadership, and would involve us in setting up the details of the program for years to come (right down to possibly designing the jerseys).
As someone who likes to be in the details (and possibly even competitive), and considering I just really enjoy soccer, this is almost impossible to pass up.
As for cross country, I'm a little disappointed that they have to be during the same season. I was looking forward to cross quite a bit, and I felt that the training and getting in shape would really be great. But I'll probably do just as much training for the upcoming soccer season, I'm certain I'll need it.
I'm already pumped for this possibility, even if it is just JV. It's the best thing available, unless I wanted to leave Lakeside, which would just be silly. There'll be tryouts though, so I've gotta stay on the top of my game.
And to think, all this for something more than 6 months away. It's just cool to think that we'll finally be able to say "Lakeside soccer".
I guess that's pretty much my excitement for now. Life gets a little busier next week, and that might not be such a bad thing. Maybe by then I'll have more to blog about than soccer.
So I'll catch you all later then.
P.S. Anyone wanna make a chicago road trip to watch the MLS? Steve I think we discussed this once.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Friday, January 05, 2007
I put the "I" in "I hate going to Indiana because usually it means one of my relatives died"
Well, I was in Indiana the past few days. It was because of the death of my Grandma. She was 94, and died of, on top of everything else, kidney failure.
It's alright though, her quality of life was not good at all, so it's kind of nice that she can finally be done with the junk this world has to offer. It sounds cliche, but I'll see her again.
Aside from that, I decided to do more than one new year's resolution, perhaps inspired by others to do so (yet keeping last year's one intact). Here goes nothing.
1. Get a girlfriend. This one sounds as lame as it is, but it's a classic. Maybe next year I won't need to have it up here.
2. Eat a full-size Mr. Goodbar. Basically all the Mr. Goodbars you see are mini, so I'd like to eat a full size one. They are pretty good when small, so they'd probably be just as pretty good when large. "Mr. Goodbar" is also what I plan to name my pet turtle in college.
2b. Get a pet turtle in college. Actually I can't do that this year, but I should at least document it, so that if I forget it, my dedicated blog readers can remind me. I shall also name it Mr. Goodbar, but you should know that by now.
3. Write some songs that don't suck. I have not found inspiration very much lately, and for some reason I haven't written a decent song in forever. It wasn't too hard with "Seattle" so maybe the inspiration just needs to be flowing or something.
4. Get a "720 on my ACT". Okay, 720 is not possible on an ACT (despite these words from Jason Schleef, I believe it was during the same night of Red Dawn where our incredible "Look, it's Schleef, he's god at this game" strategy took place), but I'd like to stop underachieving and sort out this pre-college junk, and hopefully find a decision that makes me happy, seeing that these decisions will be nearly made by the end of this year.
5. Not get last on the team in every cross country meet this year. This will be my first year of cross country, and for someone who was never athletic whatsoever, this is a pretty major step. My expectations aren't high, but I'd like to at least be able to compete within my team. Better step up the training.
6. Blog more often. I like to blog, I do. But I tend to go forever without a post. I'm not sure if I disappoint anyone except myself with that, but I do need to get better with it. 70 posts in about 25 months. That's like a post every 11 days, which means I must have posted way more in the past. But those posts were horrible, so I think it evens out.
7. Become absolutely dominant at scrabble. I've actually been playing scrabble a lot lately, with my friends and what not. It's surprisingly really fun. Scrabble is worth my time.
8. Get a Job. Actually, I don't want to. at all. I've got the rest of my life to work, as I've basically determined it'll be white collars and ties and offices for the rest of my life. But I could definitely use some extra funds, but I don't even have to pay for car insurance and gas and stuff. There are some definite benefits to not driving.
9. Sleep. I am tired a lot. and I like to sleep. I think this one should be a no-brainer.
10. Have ten new year's resolutions. I guess I kind of do already with the 2b, but that one doesn't even apply to this year. Ten is such a more complete number than 9, although 9 is the number of dribbles I had in my free-throw routine in grade school. Not sure how I chose that, but I actually think I might have been about a 50% all time free throw shooter, which is not awful for 6-7th grade. Maybe it is, but oh well. I had 10 points in a game once. Which is hereby in about the top 5 of sports accomplishments of my life. From 5th to 1st:
5th: I returned an interception for a touchdown while playing linebacker in 8th grade. Unfortunately, it was in practice. But it was sweet.
4th: In my first and only year of actually competitive little league, I led my team in batting average and also was the first kid that summer in the league to catch a fly ball as the catcher. Of course I was like 9, so I'm not sure how much that counts
3rd: Dropping 10 points against the Utica Christian "Uticorns" (actually I don't remember their team name, but we used this name to mock them. It didn't work too well, as we went 1-3 against them all time...before we didn't have enough boys to have a basketball team. Grade school sports sucked). I hit some free throws, jumpers, and layups, I never recorded another single double in any of the other maybe 7 games I started. I guess starting was an accomplishment in and of itself, but there were like 8 kids on the team total.
2nd: Winning the one wrestling match I ever participated in, 3-2 by merit of a slick double-leg takedown and an escape after I deferred after the first period and my opponent chose the strategically unsound position of "up". I escaped, got my takedown, and we took it to the 3rd period. I went neutral, because he wasn't doing much, and we basically both stalled my way into a stunning 1-point victory. We were the only two in the bracket, and I medalled too. It was pretty sweet.
1st: In 8th grade I played football through Lakeside's program, and each week, coaches picked 3 honorary captains for their work in the previous game. I am filled with the slightest bit of pride to say that I was once an honorary captain. The game which won me the honor was against Deerfield. They, on the opening kickoff, decided for some reason that they wanted to throw us off with an onside. They put all the kids who weren't good at offense or defense on the kick return team, so I ended up right in the front. By some chance, the kick went straight to me. It was kind of my chance to prove myself I guess? The ball went over my head, but I batted it down, turned around, and fell on it. My teammates went crazy, because I was pretty socially inept then and no one thought I'd actually come up with it. Unfortunately, we went on to lose like 45-7 (but as it turns out, that same bunch of kids we played are the varsity team in Deerfield now, and they went to the state championship game). But I was totally happy for the rest of the game, and since everyone else on the team lost so bad, I was voted an honorary captain.
Wow. I wasn't planning on writing about my sports career today, but it was kind of fun. I haven't actually thought about any of those times that much lately, so though it may not be fun to read, it was a neat walk down memory lane for me. I hope it was enjoyable.
Til then, War and Peace out.
It's alright though, her quality of life was not good at all, so it's kind of nice that she can finally be done with the junk this world has to offer. It sounds cliche, but I'll see her again.
Aside from that, I decided to do more than one new year's resolution, perhaps inspired by others to do so (yet keeping last year's one intact). Here goes nothing.
1. Get a girlfriend. This one sounds as lame as it is, but it's a classic. Maybe next year I won't need to have it up here.
2. Eat a full-size Mr. Goodbar. Basically all the Mr. Goodbars you see are mini, so I'd like to eat a full size one. They are pretty good when small, so they'd probably be just as pretty good when large. "Mr. Goodbar" is also what I plan to name my pet turtle in college.
2b. Get a pet turtle in college. Actually I can't do that this year, but I should at least document it, so that if I forget it, my dedicated blog readers can remind me. I shall also name it Mr. Goodbar, but you should know that by now.
3. Write some songs that don't suck. I have not found inspiration very much lately, and for some reason I haven't written a decent song in forever. It wasn't too hard with "Seattle" so maybe the inspiration just needs to be flowing or something.
4. Get a "720 on my ACT". Okay, 720 is not possible on an ACT (despite these words from Jason Schleef, I believe it was during the same night of Red Dawn where our incredible "Look, it's Schleef, he's god at this game" strategy took place), but I'd like to stop underachieving and sort out this pre-college junk, and hopefully find a decision that makes me happy, seeing that these decisions will be nearly made by the end of this year.
5. Not get last on the team in every cross country meet this year. This will be my first year of cross country, and for someone who was never athletic whatsoever, this is a pretty major step. My expectations aren't high, but I'd like to at least be able to compete within my team. Better step up the training.
6. Blog more often. I like to blog, I do. But I tend to go forever without a post. I'm not sure if I disappoint anyone except myself with that, but I do need to get better with it. 70 posts in about 25 months. That's like a post every 11 days, which means I must have posted way more in the past. But those posts were horrible, so I think it evens out.
7. Become absolutely dominant at scrabble. I've actually been playing scrabble a lot lately, with my friends and what not. It's surprisingly really fun. Scrabble is worth my time.
8. Get a Job. Actually, I don't want to. at all. I've got the rest of my life to work, as I've basically determined it'll be white collars and ties and offices for the rest of my life. But I could definitely use some extra funds, but I don't even have to pay for car insurance and gas and stuff. There are some definite benefits to not driving.
9. Sleep. I am tired a lot. and I like to sleep. I think this one should be a no-brainer.
10. Have ten new year's resolutions. I guess I kind of do already with the 2b, but that one doesn't even apply to this year. Ten is such a more complete number than 9, although 9 is the number of dribbles I had in my free-throw routine in grade school. Not sure how I chose that, but I actually think I might have been about a 50% all time free throw shooter, which is not awful for 6-7th grade. Maybe it is, but oh well. I had 10 points in a game once. Which is hereby in about the top 5 of sports accomplishments of my life. From 5th to 1st:
5th: I returned an interception for a touchdown while playing linebacker in 8th grade. Unfortunately, it was in practice. But it was sweet.
4th: In my first and only year of actually competitive little league, I led my team in batting average and also was the first kid that summer in the league to catch a fly ball as the catcher. Of course I was like 9, so I'm not sure how much that counts
3rd: Dropping 10 points against the Utica Christian "Uticorns" (actually I don't remember their team name, but we used this name to mock them. It didn't work too well, as we went 1-3 against them all time...before we didn't have enough boys to have a basketball team. Grade school sports sucked). I hit some free throws, jumpers, and layups, I never recorded another single double in any of the other maybe 7 games I started. I guess starting was an accomplishment in and of itself, but there were like 8 kids on the team total.
2nd: Winning the one wrestling match I ever participated in, 3-2 by merit of a slick double-leg takedown and an escape after I deferred after the first period and my opponent chose the strategically unsound position of "up". I escaped, got my takedown, and we took it to the 3rd period. I went neutral, because he wasn't doing much, and we basically both stalled my way into a stunning 1-point victory. We were the only two in the bracket, and I medalled too. It was pretty sweet.
1st: In 8th grade I played football through Lakeside's program, and each week, coaches picked 3 honorary captains for their work in the previous game. I am filled with the slightest bit of pride to say that I was once an honorary captain. The game which won me the honor was against Deerfield. They, on the opening kickoff, decided for some reason that they wanted to throw us off with an onside. They put all the kids who weren't good at offense or defense on the kick return team, so I ended up right in the front. By some chance, the kick went straight to me. It was kind of my chance to prove myself I guess? The ball went over my head, but I batted it down, turned around, and fell on it. My teammates went crazy, because I was pretty socially inept then and no one thought I'd actually come up with it. Unfortunately, we went on to lose like 45-7 (but as it turns out, that same bunch of kids we played are the varsity team in Deerfield now, and they went to the state championship game). But I was totally happy for the rest of the game, and since everyone else on the team lost so bad, I was voted an honorary captain.
Wow. I wasn't planning on writing about my sports career today, but it was kind of fun. I haven't actually thought about any of those times that much lately, so though it may not be fun to read, it was a neat walk down memory lane for me. I hope it was enjoyable.
Til then, War and Peace out.
Monday, January 01, 2007
I'm overdue like a...book, I guess
I haven’t posted in a month, which is pretty dumb, because December tends to be the most eventful month for me. Well, in that case, why don’t we just get started on catching up?
Flight 109 is now celebrating its 2nd anniversary. It’s pretty monumental, I’ve been keeping up with it for a while, but I think it pales in comparison with Becca’s because this is my 70th post. And she has over 200. And she’s been at it for less time. Becca, you are a good blogger.
I don’t know what’s kept me blogging for 2 years, but I still do it (although often sporadically). Are comments gratification? I don’t know. I suppose it’s a way to keep from getting totally lost in the flood of voices and opinions. Or maybe it just gives other people something to read. I know that I like to read other people’s blogs, and I guess it’s only fair to post stuff too. Because otherwise I’d be a dreaded blog-stalker.
Boise State is winning. Hot.
I also had my 16th birthday. It feels kind of irrelevant, because it’s not like I can drive or anything. It’s a little neat though, now I don’t sound so young. I don’t think age has a lot of bearing on what people think of me anyway, so I have no reason to worry.
3 days after my birthday comes Christmas, and obviously this year was no exception. Christmas was not too bad. Evan and I maintain that when we are middle-aged and have wives and kids, we will have our own way of dealing with the Santa thing. It starts with a fellow named Big Bo and his magical buffaloes. He’s basically exactly the same as Santa, except for the whole buffaloes instead of reindeer thing.
The plan is to tell our kids about Big Bo, and how he gives them presents. We’re both doing it, so if the kids ever doubt Big Bo, I’ll tell them to “ask their uncle Evan” and vice versa. If they hear from kids at school about Santa, We’ll tell them that Santa isn’t real. Basically the strategy is to create this character and for it to be religiously passed down so that a thousand years from now, half of America will celebrate the legend of Big Bo, and they’ll make stupid movies about Big Bo and he’ll be in malls next to Santa and stuff. I see basically no way for it to fail.
Boise State is now not winning by much. Not hot.
After Christmas comes the New Year. Evan and I went up to the camp staff reunion again this year. It was pretty fun, and this year I didn't feel sick the whole weekend like last time. After we went to Shinnick's to celebrate New Year's Eve.
Before everyone got there we went to Jimmy John's. I had actually never eaten there, but I guess they have this deal where if you're a student anywhere, you can get a sub combo for 5 bucks. But you also have to sing part of a song. I was feeling "Piano Man" so I sang some of that. That's one of the most fun songs to sing along to. I also took a picture of The Bar on the avenue at The Bar on The Avenue.
We went back in time to meet a bunch of their friends from MLC, and watch the Pack. What a game. 8-8's not so bad.
Boise's tied now. Not too hot.
We stayed up late, watched National Geographic, and sent text messages. Now I know all about the ape-men that supposedly ravage Sumatra. There's so much uncharted territory in Sumatra that I bet all kinds of weird stuff live there. Bigfoot, aliens, Tupac Shakur, etc...
Boise has since been losing, but just scored on the most amazing play of the year, with 7 seconds left. Gorgeous.
We headed home and listened to the Badgers. Good game also.
I'm gonna be away in Indiana until Thursday, I guess I'll explain that with the next post. Feel free to send me an email or a text or something, it gets pretty unenjoyable down there as the days pass. The next post I have will probably also contain my New Year's Resolutions, as I've decided to make a couple of them for this year, with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Until then, War and Peace out.
P.S. the Boise game will be over by the time you read this. probably.
Flight 109 is now celebrating its 2nd anniversary. It’s pretty monumental, I’ve been keeping up with it for a while, but I think it pales in comparison with Becca’s because this is my 70th post. And she has over 200. And she’s been at it for less time. Becca, you are a good blogger.
I don’t know what’s kept me blogging for 2 years, but I still do it (although often sporadically). Are comments gratification? I don’t know. I suppose it’s a way to keep from getting totally lost in the flood of voices and opinions. Or maybe it just gives other people something to read. I know that I like to read other people’s blogs, and I guess it’s only fair to post stuff too. Because otherwise I’d be a dreaded blog-stalker.
Boise State is winning. Hot.
I also had my 16th birthday. It feels kind of irrelevant, because it’s not like I can drive or anything. It’s a little neat though, now I don’t sound so young. I don’t think age has a lot of bearing on what people think of me anyway, so I have no reason to worry.
3 days after my birthday comes Christmas, and obviously this year was no exception. Christmas was not too bad. Evan and I maintain that when we are middle-aged and have wives and kids, we will have our own way of dealing with the Santa thing. It starts with a fellow named Big Bo and his magical buffaloes. He’s basically exactly the same as Santa, except for the whole buffaloes instead of reindeer thing.
The plan is to tell our kids about Big Bo, and how he gives them presents. We’re both doing it, so if the kids ever doubt Big Bo, I’ll tell them to “ask their uncle Evan” and vice versa. If they hear from kids at school about Santa, We’ll tell them that Santa isn’t real. Basically the strategy is to create this character and for it to be religiously passed down so that a thousand years from now, half of America will celebrate the legend of Big Bo, and they’ll make stupid movies about Big Bo and he’ll be in malls next to Santa and stuff. I see basically no way for it to fail.
Boise State is now not winning by much. Not hot.
After Christmas comes the New Year. Evan and I went up to the camp staff reunion again this year. It was pretty fun, and this year I didn't feel sick the whole weekend like last time. After we went to Shinnick's to celebrate New Year's Eve.
Before everyone got there we went to Jimmy John's. I had actually never eaten there, but I guess they have this deal where if you're a student anywhere, you can get a sub combo for 5 bucks. But you also have to sing part of a song. I was feeling "Piano Man" so I sang some of that. That's one of the most fun songs to sing along to. I also took a picture of The Bar on the avenue at The Bar on The Avenue.
We went back in time to meet a bunch of their friends from MLC, and watch the Pack. What a game. 8-8's not so bad.
Boise's tied now. Not too hot.
We stayed up late, watched National Geographic, and sent text messages. Now I know all about the ape-men that supposedly ravage Sumatra. There's so much uncharted territory in Sumatra that I bet all kinds of weird stuff live there. Bigfoot, aliens, Tupac Shakur, etc...
Boise has since been losing, but just scored on the most amazing play of the year, with 7 seconds left. Gorgeous.
We headed home and listened to the Badgers. Good game also.
I'm gonna be away in Indiana until Thursday, I guess I'll explain that with the next post. Feel free to send me an email or a text or something, it gets pretty unenjoyable down there as the days pass. The next post I have will probably also contain my New Year's Resolutions, as I've decided to make a couple of them for this year, with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Until then, War and Peace out.
P.S. the Boise game will be over by the time you read this. probably.
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