Damn blogger. I have attempted to place a few pictures within my blog lately, but Blogger is retarded. I actually have learned the skills to do this in HTML class and Blogger seems to have set up its own damn rules. There is a code for a reason Blogger! Yet another thing attempting to make my life difficult. But instead of searching for the reason it won't let me do it, I'm going to use a different method and Blogger can go to hell.

The picture is todays Garfield comic strip. I am not a fan of Garfield, but todays comic was great. It sums up my last blog amazingly well. So take a look.

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/2004/ga041129.gif

There is no better way to descirbe the holiday season.
  ¶ 4:26:00 PM

  Let It Be Christmas!

• I can't wait until the smells of the holiday season drift aimlessly through the house. Mmmm, christmas cookies. You gotta love them. And there is no such thing as over doing them at my house. A whole day of cookies baking in the oven, from chocolate chip and peanut butter to molasses and no-bakes. And don't forget the fudge. And then there is Christmas Eve food in a category by itself. The annual tradition of a family feast of delicious brisket. We seriously look forward to eating it all year. And my mom better make leftovers that last a week or she'll never hear the end of it.

• I can't wait until the house is decked out in it's Christmas attire. The glow of the tree as it sits in the living room with the ornamnets you have been collecting for years. It's fun just to sit and absorb its glow as you think about the coming day. The navities that remind us of the true reason for the the holuiday season. The calendars that are constantly reminding us how many more days we must wait until the day is here. I can't wait until the neighborhoods are glowing wiht the decorations on every house. It's always a good excuse to take the long way home.

• I can't wait until the ground is covered in a nice layer of snow and the world becomes a winter wonderland. It truly is a magnificent sight to see the billions of flakes fall slowly to to ground and disguise everything under a white blanket. Not to mention the hours of fun it creates. I can't wait for snowball fights and sledding, and a nice cup of hot chocolate to warm you up afterwards.

• I can't wait for the christmas shows and holiday music. I've already begun to listen to the music, but I can't wait til I can blare it through the house and no one can object. Holiday music is truly the best. Everytime you listen to it it brings back memories of Chirstmas' past. I look forward to the Dowell's annual viewing of "How the Grinch Stold Christmas." I hate to ruin it for anyone, but even the Grinch sees the cheer of the Christmas season. I can't wait for Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman.

• I can't wait for Christmas eve. Time with the family and great food too. I can't wait for Christmas Eve mass and when the true meaning of Christmas comes back into view. The songs at mass are always a seasonal highlight. I can't wait until Midnight Mass is over and we come home and truly are like kids again. No matter how old you are, the anticipation on Christmas Eve still makes you giddy.

• I can't wait for Christmas morning. Getting up earlier than you usually would and rushing down the steps to a room full of presents. I can't wait to see all the cool things I get for Chirstmas. I can't wait to see the excitment and sheer joy of people as the open gifts from other people. Even though its something you just do because of the season, it still means so much more. I look forward to spending Christmas night with the other side of the family.

• I can't wait for the joy and cheer of the Christmas season. The caring and kindness for each other. The excitment that bubbles over in everyone. If you ever need a reminder of what the season is all about just look around you. Good cheer, bright lights, good food, and time with the people who mean the most to you. Best of all, look at a small child. The immnese amount of excitment they have for the holiday will set your heart in the right place. It truly is a magical time of the year, enjoy every moment. And remember, Jesus is the reason for the season. But its so much more, too.

  ¶ 12:00:00 AM

  Gobble, Gobble Happy Turkey Day everyone! Hope you have a great day. I'm watching some football now, and soon I get to enjoy some great food and time with the family. Don't eat to much guys and gals. The radical idea this year is portion control. Haha. Whatever that is.

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Enjoy the Turkey.

And remember its only 1 month until Christmas.
  ¶ 2:18:00 PM

  Stop and Smell the Roses A while ago in English class, My Yocum told us an interesting story. Percy Shelly, the famous British author, died an unfortunate death by drowning. When they found his body they could not immediatly identify it. They finally were able to identify the body by using what they found in his pockets- his two favorite books. I got to thinking, but couldn't really decide what I would have in my pockets that people could use to identify me. So, I decided to give it a Thanksgiving twist. What would you want people to know you were thankful for in your life if you were to suddenly cease to exist?

We all have tons to be thankful for in our life, but rarely do we get or take the time to recognize nice these blessings. Luckily, I had the oppurtunity to realize this on retreat and now tend to take a bit more time to be thankful. Now, its the time of the year where most Americans take time to step back and be thankful. But have you ever really done this on Thanksgiving? Make it your goal this year to be truly thankful for every gift in your life. We have a lot.

So, what is it that I'm thankful for? Too much to be counted, but I'll give you some insight.

• It's no surprise what tops my list: family. I have the pleasure of having five of the greatest people in my family. Five similar but very different people that make each day and adventure. My life would be such a bore if I didn't have my family to entertain me every day. We share the same similar views, luagh at the same dumb jokes, and love to drive each other nuts. Like most of you reading this blog, our parents also gave us the oppurtunuity for a great education. On Thursday, make sure you are thankful that you have a roof ocer your head and food on the table every day. It's not a given for everyone.
  

• Friends follow closely behind on the list. I'm not gonna metion any names because you all know you who are. I love you guys. Your are the funnest, goofiest, and coolest people I know. We always find ways to have fun no matter what the situation, whethers its making complete asses of ourselves at the ice skating rink, creating fun at someones house, or delving into the mysteries of politics or life. Keep on being the cool people you are, because you make my days a total blast.
  

• I'm thankful for my talents. I didn't realize I was good at this until a couple mentioned it on retreat, but I'm glad I'm good at making other people feel good by always having a smile on my face. It's a small thing, but I know I feel good when someone does it for me. I'm thankful for my artistic talent. I'm thankful that I am intelligent and somewhat athletic.
  

• Music. I'm thankful for music. There is nothing better than turning up the volume and getting lost in the music. I often ponder what the purpose of music is. There is no single purpose though. It can teach you a lesson, cheer you up, allow you to let loose. or it will be there just to add some exctiment to your day.
  

• I'm thankful for football on Thanksgiving Day, college basketball in March, and soccer in the fall and spring. I'm thankful for sunshine and fun in the summer. I'm thankful for snow and fun in the winter. I'm thanking for Christmas and good cheer of the holiday season. I'm thankful for this blog and letting you know whats on mind. It gets kinda lonely stuck up there in my head.
  

I'm thankful for your comments.

Thats what I've got, what about you? I'm thankful for Thanksgiving.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

  ¶ 10:23:00 PM

  I'm Glad I'm Not Like That Guy That's what I found myself saying a lot last night as I watched the 2 hour premier of the best show on television, The Amazing Race. It has always been an entertaing show to watch and it seems to be all fun and games. But if you look at it from a different perspective, you realize how many people there on in the world like those on the show. I'm talking obnoxious, ignorant people who care only about themselves and getting what they want. There are ones that stand out and I usually hate them with a passion but they all did it. The berated their teamates, who are a sinbling, spouse, or some other kind of significant other, when they did wrong and never failed to mention that they could do it better. Later instances would prove that they are wrong. The How do these people fail to realize that they are doing these things, or is it that they don't care.

I hope I'm not like the people on this show, but if I am I hope I can change it. It's all part of the "ME FIRST" attitude our how society is a part of. Another example is sports. No longer are sports about the team as a whole. It is all a result of the dawning of the "Superstar". Ray Lewis celebrates after every tackle he makes! Message for Ray Lewis: IT"S YOUR JOB! And they pay you way to much to do it as it is. Shaq leaves the best team in the NBA since Jordan and his bulls because he isn't the only star on his team. Honestly, I think he is a total jackass. And then there is baseball. Bonds just won his 7th MVP Award. I didn't know swinging to hit homeruns while jacked up on steriods and not getting your team to the playoffs made you an MVP. Oh wait, he's a superstar. That makes sense then.

The connecting variable between reality TV and pro sports is money. Does money really have that much of a stranglehold of American society? Thats pretty sad. What is it about money that will make us do anything to get ahold of it? I can tell you that all I want when I grow up is a job that makes me happy. If it comes wiht money, all the better. All I wanted to do while watching The Amazing Race was to enjoy it. So, next week that is what I'm going to do. Hopefully someone on the show we'll realize that the oppurtunity that lies ahead of them is more about enjoying the person they are with and the adventure than winning the money. Why's it always gotta be "Show me the money!"

Let's get back to the simple things in life. Today, I listened to my first Christmas song of the season and I think I made a good choice. It really ties in with what I'm trying to say.


  ¶ 5:18:00 PM

  Busy Beaver Another week has come and gone. We are getting further and further into the dark months of winter and I have just one thing to say: NOVEMBER SUCKS. There are fewer and fewer things to do, its cold but there is now snow, and it gets dark way to freaking early. But thorugh it all, its been a very busy week. Get excited folks, Christmas is only six weeks away. And when Xmas comes so does a long break and I get my liscense. Better get to writing a list of things I want. It really isn't that much.

As for the week, it was long. It definently does not seem that I've only been back one week from retreat. Time doesn't always fly by I guess. I guess I took something out of retreat and made more out of each day. Or maybe it was five days of school with lots of make up work to do. I think I have gotten all of it done except one vocab quiz I need to do this week. This week is a four day week followed by a two day week next week for Thanksgiving. I am thankful we can be thankful on Thanksgiving. And the days off of school are a nice bonus.

So, did this long week reveal any exciting happenings for me? Well, yes. Quite a few to be exact. Wednesday was a early dismissal day. Also on Wednesday I brought in tons of can goods for Dare to Care and won some donuts for homeroom on Friday. Mmmm..donuts. And I was really happy on Friday cause I got a 94 on a physics test I thought I knew nothing for.

Luckily for me, the long week was followed by a long weekend. No school today for me. ,maybe I'll do some of those papers I've been putting off for weeks. But for now, I'll give you the Weekend Report. Yeah, I know its not entirely too exciting but its all I got. I keep trying to find other things to write about and I keep coming up empty. By the look of things, it looks like others are at a loss too. I'll attempt to just give you the higlights.

• Friday. 'Cuase November sucks, there wasn't much to do. I had to stay after school and take my second history test of the day which was not too exciting. All week we had been planning on going to see Julie's play which has kept her so budy that many of us thought she had vanished. Don't worry though, she is still surviving. Unfortunately, it was sold out. We decided to go see the Incredibles instead. I thought it was kinda disappointing. It definently did not live up to the standards of the last couple Pixar movies. The worst part was that is wasn't that funny. It was alright, I guess. Nothing too eventful occured on Friday really.
• Saturday. I went to the State Cross Country Meet with Andy and Mary. It was a good time, but the meet still baffles me. First off, why in the world would you want to run competively? Second, why would you want to watch people run? We didn't really watch much of the race because we didn't want to have to keep moving around to see people jsut run. Instead, we jsut hung out with some other people and ate the good food everybody had brought. When I got home from that, I felt a little sickish with a cold and sore thraot. So I didn't bother to find out what was going on and took a nap from 8-10. Really messes up your night if you take a nap at that time.
• Sunday. Sunday. Sunday was Open House @ St. X. I did that from 2- 430 and man was that lame. I stood at the end of the emptiest hallway in the building and directed to few people who came my way. Atleast it got me some service hours. After my shift, I chatted with Mr. Price. That night, I went to Andy's house to play some poker. I came in fourth out of 10, which is not too shabby. Amaznigly, Matt who had over 2000 in ships lost after Kyle came back from the brink of losing wiht only 50 chips. It was a really fun night. This morning when mother picked me up, we headed to the library to get some books from my reaserch paper. I've been to the library twice in the last two weeks. I'm surprised some horrible side effect hasn't occured.

And now for the mind numbing quote of the day: "If you've never stared off into the distance than your life is a shame." Counting Crows- Mrs. Potters Lullaby

Band of the Week: Guster

  ¶ 10:15:00 PM

  Chillin' Out Yes, I am writing a blog about retreat, but I'm not quite finished with it yet. There is a lot for me to mention and it's going to take a while to get it all in order. For now, I'll tell you about my Saturday. I was quite the popular guy today. I guess people couldn't survive without me these past few days. Sometime during all my conversations, Kristen called me. Kristen is such an awesome girl. She decided we should go ice skating tonight. I hadn't done that in quite a while and I knew it would be fun. So we met up at Iceland at 8 for a night of skating fun. To my delight, Maggie came to and I haven't seen her in a while. I had tons of fun wiht her tonight. Hillary and Will, plus a few girls I didn't know were there too. But I always love to meet new people. Luckily for me, they had given Maggie and extra wrsit band so I got to skate for free. Yay for that. So we laced up our skates (or snapped them up) and headed on to the freshly Zamboni-ed ice. I took the first spill aftee trying to skate to fast. You must gradually work up to a fast pace. Then, Lisa and Kiernan showed up and Lisa practically tackled me on the ice, which was hilarious. I layed on the ice laughing for a couple minutes. I know I hadn't seen Lisa in two weeks, but she didn't have to tackle me. Haha. I always love to hang out with Lisa, and it was good to see Kiernan after hanging out wiht him on retreat. We skated some more, until yet some more people showed up. Yay for more people. And awesomely, it was PHIL! He yelled my name as I skated past the entrance and I fell down as I turned to see who it was. They hung out with us for awhile until the were kicked out becasue they were too cheap to buy skates. Ha. We left the ice rink at 10 and headed to Starbucks for some hot chocolate and to just chill. I didn't dare buy the expensice coffee but instead bought a Jones Soda. My fortuned was lame though, but everyone still tested it out. It said "Look up (now)". There was nothing there except a black ceiling. We must have missed something. Then we met up with even more people. Some of Kristen's friends showed up. The one of them was like, "I know you from somewhere, but I can't think of it." Then he asked if I played quick recall. Well, it turns out this guy remembers me from the times he played me in quick recall. Thats crazy. There was a guy playing music at Starbucks and Maggie is crazy so she wanted to dance. I danced with her for a while, even though I'm a lusy dancer. Then we decided we wanted to request a song. So we sat down and waited for him to finish his current song. Then we request my favortie all time song, "A Long December" by the Counting Crows. It was awesome. Then sadly, my night came to a close. It was great night though and it was awesome to see so many of my friends after being gone all week.

LIVE the 4th!

  ¶ 1:34:00 AM

  It's a Frenzy! Can You Keep Up?

• Yes, it is yet another blog, but I can't help myself. I just like to keep writing stuff, mostly for my own enjoyment, but I hope you like it too. I'm writing one now because I won't be able to in the next four days. My retreat starts tomorrow and I am really excited about it. Time away from school, hanging out with freinds, creating new ones, and supposedly the are going to help me find God. I am somehow going to be awakened to someone or something. We'll see. According to my brothers, this is the best retreat out of them all and is one of the best experiences while at St. X. I hope it lives up to these great recommendations. Ha. I'm going into the retreat with an open mind and hope to truly gain somthing from it. Hopefully, I'll learn lots of stuff about my friends, my family, my faith, and especially myself. And to ease your minds, I will be sure to pray for your worthless souls, too. Haha. I think I've got everything packed away. As long as I didn't forget anything really important, I should be fine. I've got lots of music, some playing cards, and a frisbee to occupy free time. As for snacks, "I got Goldfishes!" and Reese's Minatures. Yum.

• In other news, the Blogging world continues to grow. Check the right side for new additions to the link list. Phil and Julie's Blogs have finally been linked correctly and I have added Justins and Lisa's Blogs. Make sure you check them out. As for those of you who don't have a blog yet, HOP TO IT! Your behind the times. When you get a blog, let me know and I'll add you to the ever growing list.

• The big election is finally here. Who will win? We may find out tomorrow. Probably not though. It may be weeks or months before we truly find out the victor. Hopefully it will be Kerry, but it won't be the end of the world if it isn't. Or maybe it will be? We'll also have to see how that tunrs out. Honestly though, no matter who wins, there will be no radical overnight change. There probably won't even be considerable change in the next four years. Though, we'll go up wiht Kerry instead of the direction Bush has been taking us the past four years: down. I just really want to see all the conservatives pout when Bush loses. Now, for the top five reasons to vote.

Reasons 1-5: If you don't vote, P-Diddy will kill you.

Have a good rest of the week. Leave me a message. Tell me how aweseom I am in honor of my reatreat. Julie (or anyone else for that matter) feel free to leave that retreat letter in my comment box or drop me and email with it. (Bender901@hotmail.com) It would be awesome to hear from anyone who wants to write me one. And now, I am done. Happy All Saints Day!

  ¶ 9:44:00 PM