Getting Some Sleep

It just occured to me, about half an hour before waking up, that I actually got some sleep, wow. Mom wants to go somewhere, and I actually have some extra energy to burn. Wow. Yesterday while at the Science Olympiad, I was so exhausted, halfway through I thought I was just going to fall asleep standing up.

Well, speaking of which, Mr. Caccamo apparently said that we got the raw end of that deal at the science olympiad. You see, our room that the high school people were at had no air conditioning, and he said all of the middle schoolers got to go in ANOTHER room, with air conditioning, and got to do all of the fun stuff. Because of that, he said that I really didn't get a good glimpse of the science olympiad. Well, even so, I still don't think that the science olympiad is for me.

Anime

Last night I was thinking about those old old movies, like Tron, with the very bad special effects compared to this. And it hit me, "there are some very old animes out there, but they don't look bad." But it dawned on me: the old movies try to mix real people with computer animated effects, but back then the effects weren't as good (well duh), but in the old anime, it's all drawn, you're not trying to mix anything with anything, because of that it doesn't look "fake" in a sense, like when you see real people standing in front of really cheap old computer animation like in old movies. Now I think I know one of the many reasons of why I like anime so much.

Still Surprising Some People

I was in a car with a bunch of my friends yesterday on the way back to Raleigh from the Science Olympiad. During this ride we talking about lots and lots of things, just like the ride back, and one thing we got to was the size of the new school. Carr mentioned that now we can actually move around, and he can actually be late for class, because before all of our classes were in the same room. Well, I mentioned that at Wake Field middle my locker was on one side of the school, and all of my classes were at the complete opposite end. Tina all of a sudden said, "you went to wake field?" because Wake Field is one of the biggest public schools in NC, and probably the worst when it comes to the type of stuff that goes on there.
So I said, "yeah, why?"
She replied, "I never thought your mom would actually send you there." and it's true, if mom had known about all the stuff that went on there, she WOULDN'T have sent me there. The only problem was it was the best thing we could find, and I didn't want to stress her out over having to transfer. Almost everyone there was a loser, except for some, and I suppose some people just have a hard time thinking about how a guy like me could come out of that the way I did. I guess the only real answer to that is character, I just didn't follow the crowd like everyone else did, I didn't care what people thought. But I DID change a little bit, but my inner self quickly slapped my real self in the face and told me not to be a loser.

Change 2

I just got my mom to change those settings, but I still have this Red background, not the color, but it says "Red" as a background for the internet... weird.

I'm talking again about change, last time I talked about involuntary and voluntary, now, a little bit more about "bad change". Bad change can be described as a form of involuntary change. One good example, is "following the crowd", you see others doing it, and thuse you adjust yourself unconsciously to doing it, your mind wanting to seem "cool". I have known many people who have done this throughout my life, and normally, it can throw off relationships and such.

How can you combat this? Well, generally, some people have felt it going away when they spend time alone with just themselves, like on a camping trip. If you don't really like football, but play it to seem "cool" (again, unconsciously), then, chances are on a week long camping trip with just you and maybe some close family, you'll start to ask yourself why you began football in the first place. This is the first step: realization.

Anytime you realize a problem, you try to fix it. Now, realization part can sometimes be very difficult, and sometimes it never even happens, but some are very very very fortunate that they DO realize it, and can save themselves.

Well, that's just about it for that kind, but, sometimes a "bad change" can be a blessing in disguise. Sometimes, you chnage so much, and it's bad, not only jusr forming yourself to fit your surroundings, like above, but bad change in general, your attitude towards things changes, such as schoolwork, for example. For several weeks, I just quit thinking about homework, but I realized my error, and quickly adjusted it. Others, aren't so able to change their mindsets. Sometimes this happens over a course of several years. Then, you may need a little "umph".

When this happens, you soon (if not, then eventually) that this is a very destructive form of change, so again, you must move to change this. These bad changes give you a glimpse of what you NEVER want to become, so in a way, you are now MOTIVATED to not do it ever again.

The Science Olympiad

Well, I set my alarm clock for 5:50 last night, the only problem was, I did that at two in the morning. So, with no sleep the previous night, I'm very tired when my clock goes off, so, when I turn it off and stand up, I just collapse onto the bed for more sleep. When I wake up, it is 6:20, and I realize that in ten minutes, my ride is going to be here to take me to the science olympiad! I already had a bad feeling about it, because the e-mail told us to bring a calculator, and mom said it was just to find out what it was, and I knew that if I needed a calculator, I'd learn by doing...

So we get to RLHS (Raleigh Latin High School) at 6:45, just in time to get a ride. I rode with Mr. Cacamo and his wife, Merideth, Michelle, and Ben. On the way there we talked about... lots of things, interesting things you could say, we're an awkward bunch.

Anyway, we get there at 9 o'clock, and the thing starts. First, we watch a fifteen minutes video, listening to all these geeks say "it's good, we can get recognition," blah blah blah, Ben has been in it, but he's also a black belt, so he wasn't geeky, me? I never wanted to go in the first place. So, I get paired up with Ben and Merideth, both of them had been in science olympiad befrore, and we do some math stuff. Then, we go on to finding out population density, and how much it changes of a fifty year period. Then, we do an experiment with toothpicks, but we get stopped in the middle. Then we did some experiment with making a pendulum, and whether or not it was the length of the rope or the weight, I told everyone it was the length, forty minutes later, they come to the come to the conclusion it IS the length. Wow, I'm pretty smart. Then we went for lunch, they had pizza. They literally ordered 40 boxes of Pizza Hut pizza, yay! Well, after that was bottle rockets. Bleh, not exactly my thing. Then we go inside, listen to them talk, show some stuff, we fill out some forms, then we go home. On the way back we stop at this burger place on the side of the road, just those small places, for dinner. Then, the long ride back. I rode with Dr. Prunelle, John Carr (call him Carr), Tina, Greg, and Rob (Greg's brother), again, full of interesting topics.

We get back to RLHS, and we wait, while fighting with the free t-shirts we got, I won! So, dad comes to pick me up, everyone else is at the pool, I get home, and mom set the parental controls for teenager, DAMN, before it was adult, now, instead of actual NEWS, they give me some crappy info on bands and stuff, like RAP singers, I'm sorry, but I have never even HEARD OF THOSE PEOPLE IN MY LIFE. Now, mom will get an e-mail about wherever I was, where I tried to go, and my IM/e-mail activity. Why does mom care? Does she honestly think I look at porn? Well guess what, I DO NOT!!!! I feel betrayed, and cut off, the news section was how I found out about things going on in the world, I don't care about some crap band.

Long Day

I don't believe this, mom is going to force me to get up at 6:15 tomorrow morning, just so I can ride with my chemistry teacher up to some science olympiad thing. I'm not really into that kind of stuff... that's Ben's department (friend of mine). And I want to sleep in until forever, I literally didn't go to sleep last night. I got in a fight with Buddy, so at night when I went to bed, my mind was swimming. Then, I realized I hadn't studied my hiragana sufficiently enough for my Japanese lesson at 8:30 the next morning. (this was all last night by the way). So, twelve o'clock rolls around, when I finally get my argument out of my mind, only to remember, again, that I need to study. I told myself I'd do it in the morning, and I laid there for two more hours. by two in the morning, I finally got up and said, "Roland, you are not tired, go transliterate some Japanese."

So, after two hours of transliterating (just writing down the sounds for hiragana/katakana, my lessons are mixed up so I really don't know the meanings for the words I see, kind of complicated), I decide to pack up, and go to sleep. That's, four in the morning. By four-thirty in the morning, I now realize that sleep is an impossible dream, so, now I proceed to actually translate the stuff I transliterated earlier, with the help of my newly bought Japanese dictionary. Then, when I'm ready to do the 30 more I thought I had, I turned the page of my photocopies (she just copies them because her book is very old, from college), and I realize I'm missing 4 pages of sentences! >_< Darn. Well, that's okay, I'll just get started on lesson 5 in the language part (I should be on lesson 15 according to the book so I know what the hiragana are saying in terms of definitions). So, that lasts me until six.

Well, it's six, I got no sleep, what is one to do? I lay there at the ceiling, hoping for only half an hour of sleep, but I realize that even though I only sleep for half an hour, when I wake up I will be extremely angry, so, I just get up to get some leftover chicken for breakfast, and a glass of lemonade to wake me up.

That sleepless night did wonders for my skills, because for the whole hour and fifteen minutes of class, what did we do? Translate. I was all over that, translating this this and this, all because of my no sleep night. So, we leave, she tells my mom I'm doing well, mom is glad, we go, I have three mountains dews with lunch, because I still have karate to go.

I get there, we stretch, knuckle pushups on the sidewalk outside, then, sparring. Wow, I hadn't sparred for literally a year and a half. Was I ready? Yes. My first match up was just... exercise, easy, warm-ups. Seconds match, sit out (uneven number of people), third math, up against second degree black belt, rules: kicks only. Well, whe was good, I would block her kicks, , she'd keep coming, and I'd kick, but I was so tall, she'd duck. Well, then I just aimed for her back, so when she ducked, I'd hit her in the head. Lost by two points though, oh well. Last round: that girl from the previous post, she was tough, we could do hands attacks, but only back leg wheel kicks in the kicking category. It was hard. She duck and go for my side after my kicks, but after twice I easily had all of her techniques down. I kept switching sides to keep her confused, and it worked.

So I get home, more argument with Buddy, I am blocked. Oh well, wait for three hours, so I browse the "Alphabet Soup" thing I got kicked off from, and I must admit, not bad, not bad at all. Well, yesterday when I found out the news, one name sticked out, he has a blog, but I won't name him. At the end of 5th grade, I hit him. Apparently he has fallen in with another certain person from my past, whom I don't like, and is now obsessed with cars. Why cars? Easily influenced by his new crowd, but then I read something he said. He said something along the lines of "cars have always been a man's muscle." That's it, see, this guy had always been kinda shrimpy, I suppose, cars make him feel tough and attractive? I don't know, whatever he does, I don't care.

So during that three hours of being blocked by Buddy, a lot happens behind the scenes, things that I chose to stay out of because of our tension. Sufficed to say, it has been mended, but the thought of what we are capeable of saying and thinking will linger in my mind for a long time to come.

Dropping Some Stuff.

Travis, I'm very sorry for not being able to read your post, apparently nathan has deleted it. I bet it was good though.

Well, I wasn't around that long, but yes, I was part of the Alphabet Soup group blog. And guess who came up with the "Alphabet Soup" title? Me. So if I'm not going to be around, then don't use that title. And no, for those people this pertains to, I DID NOT BLOCK YOU BECAUSE I COULDN'T TAKE "CRITICISM". I'm sorry, but if you think I strayed to far away from the story, too bad nathan, if you wanted your story, then maybe you should have written more than a paragraph. And for those interested, this is alphabet soup http://alphasoup.blogspot.com/ I was part of that blog, and it wasn't the criticism people, think whatever the hell you want, it was nathan and his ignorance, to be frank. I told him he gave me nothing to work with, and he said I shouldn't rely on the previous post. Well, when I said that I didn't, he got mad at me for not sticking to the story. Which one did you want? Stick to you, or not? You were a bit vague.

Anyway, I think I'll take a break from the internet, not get online as much. I've got Japanese, and karate, and kendo, and lots of reading to do. Not enough time for the internet. But I'll still be around occasionally. Just, having a life outside of the world wide web, outside of this tiny armchair in front of this tiny computer. I seek to learn, and experience, which is more than some do. I wish those some well, and hope that they may be content with their tiny little world. Like I said though, I'll be around to update, catch me then. And now I'm off to do a little Japanese translations before I sleep.

Spriggan

I just got finished watching Spriggan. All I can say is... WOW. Amazing, but then again, I don't really watch anime all that often, though I would like to. Animation, great, action, awesome. Cool technologies. But, there were some funny things.

First, being these guys would hide behind their cover, and not get shot by the enemies maching guns, then a cyborg would come along, w/ a small gattling gun on his arm, and mow 'em all down, even when they were behind cover. And second, I came up with this awesome sword technique to be used in anime. One would thrust one's katana into the stomach of another, with the sharp edge up. Then, one would pull the katana up through the enemies body, and out his head. And then, the guy in Spriggan does THE EXACT SAME THING. But then again, the guy in Spriggan then proceeded to mow him down with a huge gattling gun, which I didn't think of. And LAST BUT NOT LEAST. Wheneve I make a little person w/ my two fingers as legs, I always give him the ability to run extra fast an jump extra high and far, like a super ninja. Well, EVERYONE IN SPRIGGAN COULD DO THAT! I felt so... robbed. But Spriggan did come before my ideas did... sob.

Gasping for Air

I just got back... wow, I be honest, I can teach that class, 99 percent of the time I was making MYSELF do it, they didn't tell me to do all of those katas that I did, and when everyone else was going to get some water (like every three seconds) I'd still be doing katas.

However, when I was doing my kata, I atracted the attention of not just the instructor, but two girls and some older woman. Well, when I was practicing, I reached four conclusions of what those girls were thinking.
1) wow, he's good at kata
2) ugh, he's bad at kata
3) WHOA, he's hot
4) UGH, he ugly

Then again, a combination of above. Anyway, at home I like to totally beat up our huge sand-filled punching bag (at first it hurt, now I'm beating it in!), so I get there, and they want me to beat the crap out of their water-base ones. They were so light, but after the workout I had to put MYSELF through, I was so tired.

This was my first time back in three months, so the instructor paired me with some totally hot girl, and she wanted to know what I had questions about, and what I knew. I said, "I know a lot... lemme see here". So, she just said we go through katas. I just starting doing them, one after another after another, and after about three, she stopped to talk to her friend, who was the same age but with another student. Anyway, THAT'S when they start looking at me and forming opinions about me...

At the very end of karate class, they made someone lead the "cool down stretches", well, whenever I'm picked to do the cool down stretches, I'm going to make the class meditate, see how the crappy American dojo likes that! I wanted to meditate at the end so badly too.

That's it for karate, but on a much earlier note (like around 8:30 or so) I was beginning my Japanese test. I might post some of the questions (they're easy, even for me) in a later post, because since she's not professional or anything, the test was just handwritten and stuff, so I have the sheets. I knew just about everything, the only problem was... HIRAGANA!!! duh duh duh. I thought I knew the katakana, but she said some of them were wrong... and I have no idea why.

Went to go rent some movies, and I found... in the anime section... SPRIGGAN!!! Wow, I sure do like the "..." and suspense. Also went to Borders and bought Rurouni Kenshin vol. 5 (manga, I'd get DVDs, but they're too expensive, and I don't have cable or anything), along with a handy Japanese/English dictionary, MWAHAHA.

Well, I'm all cooled off now, so I think I'm going to get some ice cream.

The Plunge

Well, here I go, getting ready to go to my first karate class in order to finish up my three month contract to that... dojo, if it even deserves that name. Bleh. I know when I get there, they're gonna give me evil looks, but give an evil smile when I buy a new uniform because my old one doesn't fit... Oh, if only I didn't have to go there to learn kendo from that terrible kendo club... oh, woe is me... I'll be sure to describe the horrors when I return, if I ever return.

My Place in the Religious Ladder

A friend of mine told me what category I fall into when it comes to religion: agnosticism. They are the kinda people who say, "Eh, it could be this way, or it could be that. No way of telling." Before I thought it was just the impartial category or something, apparently not. Well, I'm not an atheist... right? There's one for my good points. Yay. But if I recal back to my theology classes, thinking in this manner can also give you a one way ticket to hell.

The only reason I might refer to myself as an atheist (though I'm not really one) is because there is always that one Catholic who thinks you either believe or not, and there's no in between, and if you're in that third category, it automatically makes you an atheist. Then that person proceeds to spread rumors about you all over, and pretty soon nobody wants to associate with you. Bad experiences with religion, very bad experiences...

Shorter Posts, Shorter Blog

Well, there you go, as I predicted, my posts have been shortened. And because of that, the long long posts from pre-deciding to make shorter posts era have now been archived, thus, creating a smaller blog. Isn't that neat?

Other than that, I have no idea what to write at this moment. My original idea was to sit here, with the title being "Inspired Writing" and wait until I got hit with something to say. Now there's that above paragraph, and the above title, so I can't do that anymore. I should probably go study Japanese, it's summer, but my private Japanese teacher still hands out tests.

More about Ninjas

Well I was talking to a friend of mine who read my blog, and he told what he knew about ninjas. Apparently he has taken some Japanese history or something, so he's pretty much the authority around here... except me... and Real Ultimate Power...

So, they apparently never were assasins, but intelligence. They would pretend to be a samurai, and get into the castles, and sneak around there to spy on the samurai in the castle. The samurai would only allow a few choice people in his prescence, so stealth was of the greatest importance. When the ninja got what he needed, he could just sneak away, and casually walk out. After all, no one would both to stop him as he was a samurai, or just looked like one.

To combat this, the samurai anchored their floors on the sides instead of the middle, so any ninja trying to sneak around would start the floors creaking. Tokugawa Ieyasu actually hired a bunch of ninja for his body guards, and according to that friend of mine, had them disguised as gardners.

I guess all that answers my question about Hattori Hanzo in samurai armor. So those few assasins from my previous ninja article didn't even exist? Oh well. And actually, also adding to that article, ronins were actually the samurai of fallen/dead lords, not the actual lords themselves. So if they were serving under someone, and that someone was killed, they would wander around until they were hired by someone else. Hope that clears everything up.