Of Magpies and Men

What I did today

2011-07-05T18:10:00.001-07:00

Day 3

2011-05-11T12:16:00.000-07:00

Skipped day two. Not enough happening.

Day 1

2011-05-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm laid off and don't have anything to do for three weeks, I've started a painting of Grace and Tim.

I got this picture from Grace. The lightings fun and I see goofy potential.

I wanted to spice up there clothes so I found these toasty outfits on various fasion websites.

Here's what I got done today while listening to Regina Speckter, Ingrid Michaelson, and Cake. (I think Grace and Tim like them all)

Tell me what you think.

This is what we call the Dale Shooooow!

2010-11-08T04:43:00.000-08:00

As hinted by my sister...

If you don't know what this is from, you can watch here.

Happy Birthday!

2010-09-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

Ah! But do you have five gold coins?

Puff the Dreamy Island

2010-03-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

We recently moved all of our music from cd's to a computer. Now where before I was listening to Behold the Lamb of God, I am listening to Puff the Magic Dragon, I Dreamed a Dream, and the dreaded Your Island. What an improvement!

By the way, would you rather marry Susan Boyle, or Anne Shirley?

It's all about me!

2010-01-22T18:59:00.000-08:00

Today we were sitting at the dinner table where I started talking. "Everyone keeps asking about my resolution-"

"Oh! My resolution? My- My bottom? About my resolution? Interupted Mamma."

I don't think I know what your talking about Mamma.

-Eden, Parts 4 and 5 of Castle in the Air are reversed.

-I could smell spring today!

-I've been thinking about TinTin lately. It's strange how my childhood obsessions keep coming back to me.

I've been thinking...

2009-08-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

Well I don't know if Grace is going to blog about this but I can give my personal experience. After church yesterday I didn't have Sunday school so Daddy offered to let me ride his electronic bike. After ridding it a little ways I thought it was very neat. "I bet I could ride this to school often," I thought. But about a mile out of town, a car swerved around me and made me think, "If I keep riding this far into the road those cars will keep getting closer". I went closer to the edge and got wobbly for a second then the bike came to an abrupt halt and I did not. It was also fun to soar through the air for a bit thinking, "Daddy told me it goes fast." I got up thinking "OK, It was just a small spill." Then I started thinking, "Ow. Maybe not." The car that swerved around me came back and a guy got out with tons of band-aids. "When I fall off a bike the thing that hurts the worst is my pride," Said the man sounding like the Brady Brunch dad "Yeah right!" I thought. He offered to take me in his tiny car with already three kids in the back and a tiny trunk, but quickly thought better of it when a truck came by. They drove me back to church were I interrupted my parents Sunday School to go home. "Maybe Joel can still learn how to use that bike," Thought my family. Maybe when I take off these bandages I can take a picture of my road rash.

The Abolition of Meg

2009-05-31T12:53:00.000-07:00

About a year ago I finished a game based on the book On All Hallows Eve. I keep being unsatisfied with my artwork though and it is very frustrating. Maybe sometime I will have to tell myself that I'm going to improve and look back at my work and say that doesn't look very good.

Warning

2009-04-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

There is a severe Dale Post warning. Please stay off your computers and get to the farthest location from it in your house. She's been taking pictures for a while now.

Bounty of Bananas, Peru with Potatoes

2009-04-16T14:54:00.000-07:00

During the duration of my sickness (the name of which dale has forbidden mentioning), I...

watched two Mystery Science Theaters,
re-read an old children's favorite (Mortimer),
played through the first round of Agricola which soon got me more sick.

During Mr. Warsnak's U.S. History Class, Mr. Warsnak was reviewing what the class had talked about while I was gone "Oh! Vietnam with their bounty of variety rich bannanas!" He said, or something Like that. "We figured out that you could eat a differn't kind of bannana for every day of the year."
" That's sort of like Peru with Potatoes" I said. "Oh yes exactly like Peru with Potatoes"he said, and everyone muttered about it for a while while thomas offered to pay me to do my Kracken dance and I felt a bit embarresed even when I promised myself I wouldn't.

The Fam

2009-01-20T17:42:00.000-08:00

One of our family's favorite hobbies is making fun of Family Circus. This one was quite obvious to me as soon as I saw it. See Eden's others on her blog.

Resolution

2009-01-05T16:55:00.000-08:00

For my new years resolution I have resolved to only use spoons knives and chopsticks (and possibly sporks) to eat. On new years morning I woke up with a deep stab of regret. "My Forks." I cried. I got this last part from Little Woman which we watched recently. I tried to find a video of this section but found the Anime Version instead.

Chickenknee

2008-12-13T17:18:00.000-08:00

This is Chickenknee. The tin can creates an unusual affect on this poor boy.

"I'm Chickenknee! Do you wanna' know why they call me Chickenknee? and it's not because I talk like a chicken!"

There's nothing to interesting I can talk about in my life.

Bleak Without a Cause

2008-11-14T19:16:00.000-08:00

I just finished Bleak House! Sorry Eden. Dale wants to watch it with you when you get back. I just loved the last scene with Guppy sliding out of the room. On another note, I am participating in the school play tomorrow, Rebel Without a Cause. Wish me luck.

Again, Tradition!

2008-10-19T19:39:00.000-07:00

My posts seem to keep coming back to Fiddler on the Roof.

This weekend, grace said we were going to some sort of banquet. I kept asking her questions like, "Where is it?", "Why are we going?". We parked in downtown Wichita and entered the Crown Uptown that was showing fiddler on the roof.
"Oh, Is this were the banquet is?"
Now I feel very stupid, but at least I got a good surprise.

Grace gave me a very good Birthday and Christmas present.
I also got Cake! The waitress asked how old I was and I checked with grace to make sure I was 17. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

[Edit] I liked the musical. Their were two songs that weren't in the movie although Teveya did not dance as wildly.

[Edit again]They served a cotail in a neon green cup called Tevya's Tradition. There! Is everyone happy now? Apparently I can't write my own blog well enough!

Lunch

2008-10-10T15:44:00.001-07:00

Lunch has been very frustrating this year. It's a bit to hard to explain so I drew a diagram and formula.Dylan wants to sit with Jake.
Jake wants to sit with Austin.
Austin wants to sit with Hayley.
Hayley doesn't like Dylan.

The Musicals Club

2008-09-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

After school last Wednesday, Dylan and I had to show Alex Phantom of The Opera, so we went to Alex's house. Dylan had to leave at the very beginning because his cat was dying. Alex and I made puppy chow to soothe down the grief while he was gone. When he came back we finished the movie. We are planning on doing it again this tomorrow with Fiddler on The Roof. Which brings me back to my first post. By the way, I'm planning on upgrading Kings Quest VII by editing the resolution.

The old boxy Alex.

The new foxy Alex!

I showed that to Eden last night and made up that catchy phrase on the spot. (I'm so proud of myself)

Oh Ye Hater of Crosswords

2008-09-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

Lots of the teachers this year have been giving me frequent word searches that don't help me learn. I wrote Mrs. Smith a letter last year on the back explaining why I didn't do it and she gave me a zero. Thinking Mrs. Propst would be more forgiving, I wrote her a letter and a poem about the Salem witch trials on the back. She responded with a note saying "Joel, sometimes you have to do things you dislike in life." and a zero. Mr. Warsnack will give me the grade, but calls me the hater of word searches now. Earlier this year he saw I had a word search out and he told me not to do it because it was evil. I still prefer this to the word search.Can you find the word hate in this puzzle? (It really is there.)

Mission Accomplished!

2008-08-30T18:51:00.000-07:00

I've got goal 1 and 2 accomplished. The bible study got started and people seem to think I'm being talkative and kind of strange. I had much more people this week since Lauren brought lots of friends. I was the only one talking for a bit but pretty soon Lauren said something good and so did Chris which got other people started. I let Mr. Mullen talk and he didn't get out of hand so we got a chance to pray. I've been enjoying cross country and doing well! I miss you Eden. I just had a lot of little things to say.

First Day of School

2008-08-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

Well I had a pretty good first day. I feel like I was a lot more sociable. It probably helped that I had came strait from camp. Someone said that my personality seemed different. I hope that's a good different. I had a bunch of crazy schedule changes which resulted in me taking design class and algebra II twice. Lunch is still kind of weird. Tomorrow I'll try sitting somewere else. In my goals for the week I wrote to tell jake that he had lucius locks. I'm finished with that. Got some other goals I could try? Post a comment!

Someone Was Waiting in My Room!

2008-08-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

When I got home from camp I was putting away some things in my room and who should be sitting there but Cazette. Or a giant poster of her at least.
Thank you Mama (you can find anything at Neighbors). Anyway, I liked the play. I had a hard time trying to see out of binoculars that I found could be focused after the show. Afterwards we went to Mary Pap's house with the Ladwigs who brought a bassoon player's daughter from the show with them. We started out kind of awkward but eventually started laughing like crazy when I thought Mary had said Bilbo instead of Hilda. It ended up being Hilda and her husband Bill (Bilbo) who stoped by to eat some food and show us their new car. We ended up playing the dictionary game late into the night. Last week at camp was OK. I didn't learn much because there weren't really any chapels. It seemed to be mostly about experience. I guess I was being much more social this year because I said goodbyes to about everyone. This year of camp was probably my best.

Goals for This Year

2008-08-09T08:20:00.000-07:00

There are a few things I wanted to accomplish this year.

Start some kind of bible study before school
Spend less time on the computer
Doing whatever without thinking about what other people will think
Sing Suo Gan as a solo in Bel-Canto (I was inspired by Joel's Chinese song)

The Unusual Murder

2008-07-30T18:32:00.001-07:00

"Hark!" Chris Sen proclaimed as I was walking to our dormitories. "Let us go on a long walk!"
I thoroughly agreed as I eagerly followed.
The comrades that followed were Joel (NOT I), I, Chris Sen, Chris (Not Sen), Tristan, Cody, Jaris, and Sam followed up the rear (Rear, Tee Hee).
We began our journey with Cody tearing ahead as if a coon hound chasing after it's game. Jaris closely followed up in the rear (Tee Hee).
We walked with Sam Randomly Chopping anything in It's path! I could see the fire and brimstone in his eyes. I could tell something was a foot, however, I had no proof.
We followed up in the rear (Tee Hee) and eventually caught up with the rest of our party at Ye Olde Cathedrale. We sat and jabbered away as if Magpies calling out to each other. Eventually, Chris (Not Sen), Joel (NOT I), and I, tiered of our chatting and continued on our journey. As we were walking, a sandal flew past and proceeded to hit Chris (Not Sen) on the side of the head! "Curses!" Chris Yelled out in horror "That Cocckufluey Sandal hit me in the front most part of the head!". I proceeded to fetch out the sandal out of the shrubbery.
We noticed Tristan laying prostrate in the grass with little buggies running up and down his body. We ignored the poor fellow and continued on our most tiresome journey. As we continued we heard a cry of vengeance and we took tarring off into the trees! My heart pounding like a big bass drum! We proceeded to pick up weapons from the Ye Olde Chaple. Joel (NOT I) tossed me a stick and I placed it in my knapsack. Chris (Not Sen), and Joel (NOT I) picked up remnants of the chapel and carried them along.
Cody in a rare fit of independence grabbed an antique bottle and smashed it against Ye Olde Chaple. He was left holding the bottle head in his hand and half of the shards holding him. Fully prepared, we began to sprint with sharp objects down the road. "We must make it to the safety of our warm hearth else we shall be smitten!" Called Joel (NOT I). We dashed through brush and heather, Ducking under low hanging branches and leaves. After we finally emerged into the comfort that is KBC, we collapsed into our warm blankets and survived to tell the tale.

As for me, I think that it was Sam that held the blame.
See Joel's side of Ye Olde Story.
http://joelwasso.blogspot.com/

Renaissance Festival! Huzzah!

2008-07-18T07:09:00.000-07:00

For old settlers this year, were having a theme I've always dreamed of. The Renaissance! That's right. Now I can freely walk around the streets of Halstead wearing a page outfit and yelling "Huzzah!" to passers by. (at least I hope so) It looks more like a dark ages festival to me but oh well. This will have to do. By the way, here is a mean comment I saw "way to be creative ?!?!".

Reminds me of Strong Sad's Dragon

Don't Cry for Me, Peru!

2008-07-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

So my sister has just left for Peru. Last night she came home and she wanted to stay up late so we watched one of those weird hallmark movies. It was about a seal that could turn into a woman.
To honor Eden and Dale I made my own movie cover. (Maybe I've been putting to many edited photos on my blog.)

Les Misrables

2008-07-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been doing a lot of things that have to do with Les Misrables because we will be able to hopefully see the musical in a few weeks! I am PUMPED!!!!

Listening to the soundtrack(Daddy hates the street urchins singing)
Hopefully watching the movie again
Playing the almost completed video game(Here is his blog)
Maybe I should read the book?

Happy second Page blog post Le Mis!! Are you PUMPED!!!???

Colorado Trip

2008-07-09T05:56:00.000-07:00

Somewhere, an Indian is Crying.

Now, to beat grace at blog posting. We started off the first day with our grandmother who said I looked like Josh Groban for the whole trip. We eventually dropped her off at Uncle Phil and Aunt Shirley's house. (I was free of the Josh Groban jokes for a while) We went to Uncle Bill's property to camp out with Bill, Marge, Cristie, and her kids. We went on two walks there. One to an abandoned cow shed, and one to the top of the rocky slope up yonder. We were driving back and went on a very fun hike called "Colorado Trail" or something like that. When we got to Denver, it was horribly touristy and crowed with motorcycles and bikes. We went to an outdoor museum that was rather small and included statues from Alice in Wonderland. Later we went on a walk to the bus station and I met a very charming robot woman that appeared to be a bit bury with her
speech. Although it was fun to listen to her. Daddy and I went to the Airport museum where there was some props from star wars and around the world in 80 days. There were also airplanes. We picked up grandma later and started our trip home. For entertainment that trip I had read A Canticle for Lebowits, Played a game on Daddy's Pocket pc, and listened to the audio book of A Canticle for Lebowits. These all ran out after a while as everything does so I mostly sat the whole trip and took pictures of things with dale.

gramar nastsi

2008-07-03T07:14:00.000-07:00

my brother paul has been kihhngd enough to pount out tthat I have had several grammer problems in my bolg sinse I started it and calld me a "internet denizen . i had to look this up and it see med to meen a resedn't of the internet,> I don't really understnd this and i uhope its not an inslt. I dont understand lingo of the intrernet :-P i will tri to make less freqwint mistkes and not to be an intrntet dinsien lol.

Here is my grammr Nazi of a brother himself. Lol

And now for a REAL blog post

2008-06-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry Grace I know I copied your title. Actually I think the last post was more real than this one.
Anyway, the first thing I did this morning was rearrange the furniture on the back porch and we put our recliner in the corner. I tried laying down in it and when I did, I realized I was right underneath Eden's floating city with a sharp edge on the bottom that was hanging right over my neck. I tried to get grace to lay down in the recliner too and she Immediately got suspicious, especially because I was holding a pair of scissors. I finally got her too, but she wasn't as surprised as I would have liked her to be. Oh well. The days get pretty boring when you sit at home all summer.

Tradition!

2008-06-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

It's tradition to write your first blog post explaining why you decided to make a blog. For most people its to express there opinions. For my two oldest sisters however it seems to be for entertainment. Dale told me this boring afternoon to start a blog and when I asked why she simply said, "TRADITION!!!" not really, but that would have been much cooler. She actually said "Cause everybody else is doing it." I probably should have named this post peer pressure but I've had fiddler on the roof stuck in my head for a while. Here is a video of Tradition!

I thought this picture was appropriate.