Guitar Experts?

First of all, don't forget to enter my contest! There are still no entries, so you could still win!

Ok, I don't know if any of you are guitar experts, but I'm looking to get a new electric guitar. I'm torn between two guitars, and I really don't know which one I want more. I'm looking for some suggestions from people, so if you have any opinions on either of these guitars, they would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Gibson SG Standard

Qualities that drive me crazy!

Are there certain things people do that drive you absolutely crazy? I know there are for me, so I just thought I'd list a few of them.

The thing that bugs me the most is when people are hypocrites: they say something and do the exact opposite. I can't explain how bad this frustrates me. There is this kid I know that does nothing but play video games in his spare time. Any time I go over to his house, his mom answers the door and sends me to the basement where he's sitting on a bean bag playing Wii or Gamecube. His life is devoted to video games. So one day, I'm hanging out with him, and a little group of us go up to my other friend's house. It was his birthday a few days before, and he got the new Guitar Hero World Tour. Guitar Hero is one of the only video games I really like, so I wanted to play it. We did for a little while, until my video game obsessed friend suggests we stop playing it. Normally, all he wants to do is video games (and that has made me really dislike most of them because that's all he ever does). But right now, when he's actually got me here playing them, he wants to stop. And, I am not kidding, he said, "I hate just sitting in one spot for a long time, I like being outside better!" When he said that, I just really didn't know what to say. I can't stand when people are hypocrites!

Another thing that bugs me is when people are so full of themselves. They think they are so much better than you at something. Even though sometimes they may be, they shouldn't be bragging it up. There is one kid I know, and he has it in his head that he is so good at everything he does and that he is sooo much smarter than everyone else. We play football over at our church field every once in a while. We try to make the teams fair, and he thinks he can choose teams the best. He'll try to stack his team. If he thinks the teams are unfair, he'll just mope around, not play, and try to get the teams stacked to work out for him. And another about that that bugs me is that he makes judgments on how good he thinks someone is. I know I am not the best there is at football, and I'm fine with saying that. But what he does is say that two people are better than everyone else when we're making teams, and I think it makes other people feel bad about how they're playing when he does that. Of course, he always puts himself higher than other people. He's really no where near as good as he thinks he is. In a lot of ways, he is actually a disadvantage to the team he plays on. He does more bad than good. He does all this thinking he knows what's right, but doesn't.

The last thing I'm going to mention is people who try to be funny all the time, but really they're not. It bugs me so bad when you have someone talking to you, constantly telling lame jokes that you have to force a laugh at so you don't make them feel bad. I'm not going to get into this farther, but I thought it was something worth mentioning.

Well, once again thanks for reading!

My Mythology Project

Oh man... I have been working on my mythology report (for those of you who have Mr. T) for about an hour now. I decided to take a little break, and just vent my feelings about it right now on my blog. I just can't seem to make the words sound right on the page. Does that ever happen to you? I know what I want to say, and I can think to myself what I want to say, but when I try to put it on paper, it just doesn't sound like I want it! Ugh this is driving me crazy! I know what I need to put in it, and it really shouldn't be this complicated. I can get it all in there, and I'll think it is good, but when I try to read it, it just doesn't flow. So I go rewrite some parts, hoping that it is going to sound decent and still meet the requirements, but I fail once again. I can get it sounding nice, but missing a few things (like a topic sentence for example) or it will have everything, but just sound like a whole bunch of words that don't belong together. I figured maybe if I don't read it for about ten minutes or so, it will just hit me. I'll have an epiphany and just know what I have to do to make it work. I'm hoping so. I really am. Normally I wouldn't be to worried about this, but this is going to be 600 points on our grade, so I really want to make this good. Ok, I think that's been long enough. I'm off to read it!

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Yes! I think it's working! I just went through the first two paragraphs and I think they are sounding pretty good! I thought I'd take just another short break to make sure I'm at the top of my game! Well, back to writing now!

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Well I did it! I think I got it pretty good now. I'm having my dad read over it, and he's going to give me a few pointers. I guess that's it for me tonight. Thanks for reading!

Achilles: The Not-So-Noble Hero

To all those taking the time to read my Blog, this is my mythology research paper for Mr. T's class. I am posting it on here for some constructive criticism. Any comments would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

Achilles: The Not-So-Noble Hero

In what ways don’t we see the personality or influence of Achilles in current wars?

You are the General of the U.S. Army and you have just killed Osama bin Laden. This is a great feat, as he is almost at the top of the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Once you have killed him, you tie his corpse to the back of your Humvee and drive him around Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul three times everyday. At first your country praises you for killing him, but once they find out what you are doing to his dead body, they aren’t so pleased. It is disgraceful, and sick in a way what you are doing. However, back when Achilles was a Greek war hero, you would have been praised for this sort of thing. Achilles was the leader of the Greek army in the Trojan War. He was feared by all of the Trojans. One day during the war, King Agamemnon made Briseis, Achilles’s sweetheart, a slave. He refused to fight after that. Agamemnon begged and begged for Achilles to come back and fight again, but he was too depressed. Eventually Achilles sent his friend Patroclus to fight for him with his own armor. King Hector killed Patroclus and this made Achilles realize he needs to fight. He leads his troops to Troy and kills Hector. After that Achilles drags Hector’s corpse around Troy three times every morning. Achilles eventually gives the corpse to Hector’s father in exchange for his weight in gold. If Achilles, or any other war heroes from back then did some of the things they did back then today, most people would not think that they were such great heroes.

Back in the times of the Trojan War, you would have been praised for a lot of the things Achilles did. However, today it would not be the same. If you were to drag the corpse of a dead soldier around their home city three times every morning after you had just killed them in these days, you would not be praised like Achilles was. Back then killing someone and putting them to disgrace was a heroic act, but today it is just plain wrong. The same goes with when Achilles demanded a ransom for Hector’s body. You just couldn’t do that today without being put to shame. The noble thing today would be to just turn the body over to the family. Achilles wasn’t the only Greek hero to ever do something like this though.

Theseus is another example of a Greek hero that you could say wouldn’t have been so noble. Theseus took the law into his own hands. Instead of catching a murderer and turning them over to the proper authorities, he would kill the criminal in a way that they had killed other people. If you went around killing people by flinging them with pine trees (in Sinis’s case) that is how Theseus would take care of you. When he made it to Athens, he had killed many bandits in this action, including Sciron and Procrustes. He was praised for this because the people didn’t have to deal with these criminals anymore. However, if this happened today, Thesesus would not have been praised the same as he was back then. People probably would have been happy that the bandits had been caught, but he would also have been sentenced to prison as a murderer. In Greek mythology, heroes weren’t the only ones to commit these kind of acts. The King of the Gods also did some not-so-noble things as well.

Zeus was known as the King of Olympus, but still had a problem: he cheated on his wife. He was the ruler of all the Gods. He was known for his wisdom, and earned being called the "noblest one of all". Thus being said, he did some pretty bad things for his title. He cheated on his wife, Rhea, with many other mortals and Goddesses. He was never punished personally for his actions, like he would be in today’s society. However, the kids he had with the other women were punished by Rhea. An example of this would be Hercules. Rhea was upset with Zeus for cheating on her, so he constantly tormented Hercules. This later drove him insane, and he killed his family. Hercules was punished and had to complete the twelve Labors. So as you can see, not even the head honcho of the Greek Gods would be considered so noble or great today.

Although there were Greek Gods and Heroes who were looked upon as great or noble, many of the things that they did today would not be the same. Achilles was a great war hero, but did some things that would be considered wrong today to earn that title. Theseus was also a hero to the Greeks, but today would just be considered a criminal with all the people he killed. Zeus, ruler of the Gods, cheated on his wife, which is a very dishonorable act in most parts of the world today. There are many, many things that are the same about today’s society and ancient Greece’s society, but there are still many things that have changed. As you can see, standards to be considered noble or a hero are one thing that have changed quite a bit.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to enter my contest!

This Term So Far

Before you read, don't forget to enter my contest!

Well, so far this term has been going great! Mostly... there are still a few classes I am not likin'.

Science isn't really hard, I've never had to many complaints about that class...

But then there's Band... Oh my goodness, that class just isn't getting any better. At the beginning of the term the teacher was going to require pep band. None of my friends wanted to do it so we were all freaking out about it. Luckily we got out of it though. Turns out he can't require us to stay after school for a grade. So now if you do it, its just extra credit. Still, it is going to be a joke. The teacher can't control the class, so nothing ever gets done. He has all these big ideas, like pep band for example, and I swear he will never get them done! Pep band will not last long in my opinion. There are a few things that I can see happening... Scenario A: People quit showing up for pep band just because of the mediocrity of the thing. Scenario B: The basketball coach kicks them out for disrupting the players. Scenario C: The refs have had it with them and get kicked out. I can't see it lasting too long. We've already got cheerleaders to do all the cheering, we don't need a whole other group for that. Plus, he's planning on have SOO many people, I'm not sure they're all going to fit. Ugh...I'll be done on that topic for today.

Seminary is great though! By far one of my favorite classes. We just got our sort of term projects yesterday, and it looks pretty fun! It has 101 small acts of service we have to do before Christmas, and it just looks really fun!

Then there's math... It's getting better. Assignments aren't taking as long as they used to, so I can't really complain about that class!

Geography is going pretty good, nothing to hard there. We are learing about the Caribbean right now, so I'm enjoying it since I just went on a cruise there last summer. It's really interesting learning about their cultures and what not.

Then I have english with Mr. T! Definitely one of my more liked classes! We're learning about mythology right now, so its pretty cool.

Seventh is student government. It's pretty fun most of the time. If there's nothing to do we just sit and talk... Or have battles...

And lost but not least, Honors English! Well, I am doing pretty good so far. I've got the two books to read, but I am sad to say that I am not very far in the one I have to have done by midterms. I think I should probably get going on it! But I also have the writing assignments. Those don't usually take me long though, so I'm not to worried about that!

Well, thanks for reading my whole thing... You must have a lot of spare time on your hands if you've read all my blabber so far! So until next time, may God be with you 'til we meet again! :)

Contest 2

Wow! It took long enough for someone to finally notice my contest section! Good job Super Skier! You would be in second because you pass the person who's in second place. To pull ahead into first place, you would have to pass the person in first place.

Here's the next question:

There are 45 apples. If you pick up 3 apples, how many apples are there?

Good luck!

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I've been doing some heavy editing on my blog today, and I had an idea. I'm going to do some contests on here just for fun. I'll post a question, and once someone gets it right I'll post a new one. I know you're probably wondering if there will be prizes, and yes, of course there will be! What kind of person would I be if I didn't offer prizes?! The person who gets it right wins the honor of being placed on my Contest Winners List! Pretty sweet eh?!

Anyways, here's the first question:

You are third place in a race. You pass the person that's in second. What place are you in now?

Good luck everyone!

Contest Winners List

Congratulations to the winners of all my contests!

Contest 1: Super Skier
Contest 2:

Weird Traditions

If you really think about it, a lot of traditions that people have are pretty weird. A lot of holiday traditions, what we wear, and so forth. I just thought I'd mention a few of them and see what everyone else thinks.

Ties. I had never really thought about this before, but I was at church last Sunday and it just occurred to me that ties are a very interesting article of clothing. They have numerous different styles of them: there are ties with stripes, ties with repeating designs, and ties that express something with a picture. A lot of my favorite ties have pictures on them, whether its my guitar one or my golfing Santa tie that sings (which I wear off and on over summer) I like to express something on them. But anyways, that's not what I find weird about them... What is a tie? It is a piece of fabric that we hang from our neck on special occasions. Does that seem a little strange to anyone else?

Easter. Easter is a great holiday, you remember the resurrection of Christ and its a day to be with family. But if you think about it, the things we do on that day are pretty weird... For the resurrection of Christ you decorate eggs, and a bunny hides them for you to find. It may be just me, but this doesn't have a whole lot do to with Christ coming back from the dead...

Christmas. This one isn't as bad as some of the other ones, but it is still pretty good. For Christmas, we go chop down a pine tree, bring it in our living room, decorate it, and then Santa Claus brings presents to good little girls and boys and leaves them in socks on the fire place and under the tree. But it is also a great time to spend with family, so it's not as bad as some of the others.

Thanksgiving. This one is my favorite. When people were deciding what to do for Thanksgiving, they must have run out of ideas. They were scrambling, because eggs and chopping down trees and taking them to your living room are already taken for Easter and Christmas. They finally decided on just eating a lot. Really not that creative, but still a fun holiday!

Fourth of July. This is also a great one. The Fourth of July was the day that the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence freeing us from England. So what do we do to celebrate? We go to Wyoming to get illegal fireworks and blow things up. This probably wasn't what the founding fathers would have wanted when they signed that declaration.

Birthdays. This is the last one I'm gonna do for today. Birthdays are a funny thing. You go a whole year without dieing, and get presents from family and friends for doing this. Plus you can invite all your friends to a party, and then they all have to bring a present for you.

So yes, we have some pretty wacky traditions, but they're all fun! So I'm not complaining about these, just kinds pointing them out. ;)

Week In Review: The Band Concert, The End of the Term, Halloween, and Cloverfield

Wow, this has been a crazy week, and I am just glad to be over with it!

First of all was the Band Concert... Wow that was a frekin joke man! There are so many things that went wrong, and our teacher is totally oblivious to any of it. First of all he tells us to get there at 6:30, he doesn't even show up until 6:40. When we went down to the gym to play, there was no order. I had no idea what I was even supposed to do. While the other bands weren't playing, he had no control over them. One of the assistant principals had to come over and calm everyone down. Beginning Band sounded better than concert band. He had all the instruments in beginning percussion, which NO ONE was ready for. Beginning band was playing WAY to hard of music. The percussion ensemble was a joke. Symphonic band was the best out of everyone, but still, no where near where we were last year. At the end, our teacher didn't have the students helped clean up chairs, he just stood there and eventually parents and the assistant principal were cleaning up. So yeah... Had the old teacher been there, it would have gone a LOT better.

Next item on the agenda, end of term! This is what I am the most excited about! I was worried about my grades in a couple classes, but I ended up pulling it all off with a 4.0! I was nervous for English, because I was worried about my AR points. I had 23, and just needed 7 more. All I needed to do was pass the Count of Monte Cristo test and I was good! Well I did so the A was secured in that class! Then there was Math...I was on the verge, but I got an A on a test, along with extra credit I had saved up over the term, and I got the A in that class! And that was really all I was worried about.

Next up, Halloween! It actually turned out better than I was hoping! This kid in my ward was having a party, and I was really hesitant on going, because all he does is play video games, and I find that so boring! He invited some of my other friends, so I went. It actually turned out pretty fun! We played football for a while, then went and had pizza at his house. After that, my other friend has hot chocolate at his house every Halloween, so we went up there and picked up our other friend! Then we went and just threw a football around in the street. After that, we watched Cloverfield, which is item number 4...

I don't know about anyone else, but I thought Cloverfield was LAME! Oh, and if your reading this, and you still want to see Cloverfield, don't read, because I will be giving away some of the plot. But I thought it was stupid! It starts out with the guy with a video camera just filming, and then all of a sudden theres a big explosion, the Statue of Liberty's head falls off, and there's a big monster in Manhattan. They're running away from it the whole movie, everyone dies by the end, and you find out NOTHING about the monster! You don't know where it came from, if it dies, lives, nothing! I hated it, but that's just my opinion.

Well, that's pretty much my week! Hope you enjoyed reading it! :)