Hey everyone. Sorry I've been an absolute FAILURE at blogging. That's really something that I shouldn't fail at, in my opinion. But I'm back, and I hope to keep this more updated. We'll see how that works out.

What's been happening with me? Well, I won't go over everything. The big things that took up the entire month of November was that I got to be a part of Hillcrest's production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. I had an absolute blast, met tons of new people at Hillcrest, and got to be a part of an amazing show. Hillcrest is known for their performing arts, especially for the musical they do every year. And I get to do this for two more years!

I have a new group of friends, as mentioned in my last post, and they are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Andrea, Alisa, Addie, Annika, Darci, Emily, and Torrey are such special people, and I don't know how to tell them enough. And McKayla, Taylor, Sarah, Elizabeth, Erin, and any of my new friends who I'm forgeting, I love you all. Jacob and Dane are awesome! And all of my old friends... I still love you all. :) Especially my fivesome, the Wonderful Rebekah, the Beautiful Rachel, the Amazing Daniel, and the Wise Evan. (Yeah... I decided I had to choose an adjective for each of them. :) ) I could go on and on and on, but it would take a while... so if you're feeling neglected, come talk to me. I'm sure I have a list of positive things to say about you.

Life at Hillcrest is awesome. I love it. I'll try to keep up to date from now on. Good day everyone!

I am 16 years old. I can't believe it. I feel so old. It's like 16 was a thing that I always looked forward to, but now that I'm actually here, I can't believe it. It's odd.

I had a wonderful birthday. It started the Friday before, when Grandma Hall came down and took me to see Pirates of Penzance at Hale Center Theater. It was kind of a wacky play, I must say. They were all very silly. Mr. DeHaan was in it as the pirate navigator, and he did a very good job. I enjoyed spending the night with my grandma and learning more about her.

Saturday I had a bunch of people come over to my house before the Region Dance. We ate dinner, hung out, met new people. I tried to take some pictures with my mom's camera, but no one would let me. Then we went to the dance, and had fun.

Thursday was my actual birthday. I have some amazing new friends at Hillcrest. I walked in that morning and went to my locker to find a big sign on my locker that read

Happy 16th B-Day Jerom

You are awesomely epic!

<3 Alisa

My name will forever be a plague. :P By the time I got there they had made attempts to cross out the e and put an a. But it made me laugh.

But the surprises weren't over. I opened my locker to find that king sized cookies and cream Hershey's bars had been taped all over my locker. :D Those things are AMAZING. There was also a note hanging there and two cards from Alisa and Andrea. Who are also AMAZING. (As well as Darci, Addie, Attica, Emily, and everyone else in my new group! :D )

Aaaand... I GOT A NEW CAMERA! Yes my pictures are back in business... Assuming I actually remember to take it places and take pictures. :P

Sunday I was ordained a Priest! My grandparents as well as Megan and Bobby got to come and visit. We had this big dinner. My mom makes this delicious pork that she cooks in liquid smoke. Mmm...

Grandma Norris gave me a $25 ITunes card... Which, combined with the $15 each from Evan, Daniel, and Kat, plus the ten that mom owes me, gives me $80 in ITunes money. :D :D :D Jarom is one happy music lover right now.

(P.S. I spent $50 of that last night. :D )

So all in all it was a good birthday. I'll try to keep you guys more posted! Loves and Hugs!

Two Months?? TWO MONTHS?!? Wow, I fail.

Hey, all, (If there's anyone left...) Sorry I suck at posting... And reading... And just blogging in general... Yeah, I don't know why I just plain haven't gotten on here in so long.

What's been going on lately? Well, I've been working on my new story (Slowly, when I have time on the computer.) I've been working on music and tweeting poetry (Yes, yes, I know some of it is depressing.) I've been spending time with Amazing friends and coming to terms with my mind. (Finally.)

So I'm going to try and post more often now. Thanks to you who still read this... Though after such a spectacular fail, I don't know if there are any.

JeremiahPena.com

Hey everyone! Check out the awesome music by my good friend, Jeremiah Pena! He's a very talented boy who composes his own music using software on his computer. I quite enjoy listening to his music, and I think you will too.

Review the last week... I should post more often then once a week, but oh well...

All right, let's see... Driver's Ed is over. I still have to do some more road drives, though. I went on one, and he told me to come back after I had practiced more...

Tuesday we had a burning at Evan's house. We were going to use our ceramic firepit, so Dad asked me to clean it out. While I was cleaning it out, I set it down on the grass and it shattered... Not good. So we went and bought a new metal one and used that. So I need to get the money to pay for that. :( But I had fun at the party. We burned our old homework... Well, some of it... And sat around the fire listening to music and what not.

Wednesday was Dad's birthday. I got him a pin with an Angel Moroni and an Argentine flag, cause that's where he went on his mission.

Thursday was my parent's anniversery. We went as a family and saw The Last Airbender. //SPOILER ALERT\\ We've been watching all the shows lately and getting ourselves psyched for this movie. I was really excited. And thusly I was disapointed. The movie moved too fast in my opinion, and the fighting moved too slow. They all looked really awkward when they were doing their bending because they would move as if in slow motion, and the elements moved just as slowly. Yes, it was a cool movie. But definately not my favorite. They pronounced all the character's names wrong. I mean, I can sorta understand that if you're doing it from a book or something, but this was based off of a TV show. All the names were clearly defined. But instead of General "eye-row" It was General "ear-oh". Instead of "Sock-uh" It was "Soke-uh". And instead of "Ang" it was "ahng". If my prononciation guides make any sense. Also, in the movie, firebenders couldn't create their own fire. Except Iroh. And when he did it, everyone was totally shocked. It was embarrasing.

Friday we had a party at Ty's house. It was a blast. We played Brawl, Imaginiff, Honey Do You Love Me?, and Guitar Hero. It was a blast.

Saturday we wend and saw the parade. Some things were kind of funny... Like they had this women running for congress in it, waving a purple lightsaber. Following her car were Luke Skywalker and Jabba the Hut. They also had the Wendy's Jazz Band. And, of course, The Copper Hills Marching Band and Color Guard! Woot! I saw Nick playing his drum, Garrett dancing with his Saxaphone, and Rachel dancing with the Color Guard.

That night we went to West Jordan Park for their big thing... I met up with Aerin and Steph there and we watched Flushed Away on a big screen they set up in the park. Then there were fireworks and stuff. So it wasn't very long, but it was fun.

Sunday morning we got up and drove off to Aunt Megan's church for the blessing of her new baby boy, Evan Robert Porter. Then we had brunch at her place and took pictures and stuff. I kept getting all sorts of compliments from people I didn't know.

So those have been my adventures lately.

Yes, I know I suck at this. I'm sorry.

So, the first day of summer I rode my bike down to Copper Hills (Biking is something I do during the summer, so I thought it worked to kick it off...) then I thought I'd make sure that I knew how to get myself to Jeremiah's house, since we were trying to plan a band practice for that weekend. So I stopped by his house... And we decided to have the practice right then. Which, as always, we got little done and ended up trying to film a new movie anyways. We only got half done with that, though, before I had to go home. (Jeremiah still needs to finish the other one we filmed months ago!)

So that night was Kayleen's dance performance, which also included Brielle, Jaden, and Lia. After that we drove to Grandma's house and stayed the night. We went to the Chico Reunion with them the next day. Chico, California, is the town where I was born, and where my parents grew up. Most of the people that lived there now live here in Utah, so every year they have a big reunion. Me and Kayleen went to that with Grandma and Grandpa Norris and represented the Timothy Norris Family.

Next week was the beginning of Driver's Ed. It's actually just "Here's a packet and a textbook, do whatever you want as long as you get stuff done and don't distract the teacher." And we watched movies every once in a while... Like driving videos. But I met this cool kid named James who's been home schooled most of his life. He's really funny. (I should go find his e-mail and message him... K done. =D )

Umm... what else have I done? I spent an afternoon at Skye Park with Garrett, Ryan, Jeremiah, Maya, Elizabeth, and her friend Dayne. Then near the end Bekah showed up, limping and with a brace on her knee. I had to support her as she hobbled down the stairs... Poor Bekah. This is going out to all of you... DON'T HURT YOURSELF. It makes me feel... bad... Like "AUG! My friend is in pain..." It puts me in pain, okay? So don't do it.

But she was doing fine, because the next day Evan invited her, Daniel, and myself to go to the temple and do baptisms, and then we took her home and Rachel K. was there, and so we actually ended up having a party at Bekah's house with the five of us. And I must say... MAN OH MAN THAT WAS A BALL! I love those guys. =D

So I've been biking to Copper Hills every morning... And my mind likes to wander while I'm biking. So I've actually written two songs while I've been biking. It's kind of funny.

What else have I done... I hung out with Quin. That was fun. OH YEAH. I've decided that MFA was not only a total copyrighting issue, but it was poorly written and... Well it just crashed. So I'm scrapping that. I am, however, beginning writing a new story that I've had ideas for for a long time. It does not have a name yet... And I hope to be better with this then with MFA.

There was also Big Event. That was fun. We went Shotgun shooting, and it was my first time shooting a shotgun, and I hit 5/5 birds. I tribute it to the timing I've built playing video games. =D We also went repelling, which was fun. It was kind of funny cause the helpers at the bottom weren't paying attention when I was going down, until one of them said "Oh, here comes another guy." And then I heard "Jarom Norris." And I landed on the ground and to my surprise, there was Xander. He was working at Big Event at the repelling wall. We went Rock Climbing, too... I made it 3 feet off the ground before I couldn't go any further. The things were too small and my feet kept slipping off. I couldn't climb. So that was a fail... I saw Jonathan C. there, too, and he told me that Jacob V. and Samgee were there somewhere.

Monday was Evan's birthday, so we (Daniel, Bekah, Rachel, and myself) went and kidnapped him... That was interesting. Then we went and had a party at my house. That was even more interesting. I love that group...

Oh, and Raechel injured herself. Biffed it on her bike, scrapes all over, stitches on her chin. I went over to her house so I could talk to her and make her feel better. And then Robby showed up. And then we went outside and Calvin came over. So we ended up having a party instead of what I had planned... But oh well.

Umm... I think that's about it. I'll come back if I think of anything.

Well, as you can see, I suck at this. Annoyingly enough, this layout will not let me show you the date of the post... but that last one was on May 31. Today is June 14. Crap... Why do I have the feeling like there was something important on June 14th? My calender says nothing but Flag Day... Which reminds me to go see if our flag is out... Surprise Surprise, it's not. Nor is it in the closet where we keep it... Umm... Strange. Why would anyone take that anywhere but to the flag post without Mom knowing?

Random thought - Don't you love little things that you know only you would notice? Especially about your room. I always know when someone's been in my room. Like this morning, I was sitting on my bed, and I realized... That Rubik's Cube was green side up yesterday... and now it's orange side up. Hmm... Or the other day there was a piece of paper that I hadn't even seen in a while that is now mysteriously on the ground where I put my phone and wallet every night.

Anyways, lots of things have happened since my last post... the first one I believe would be Lagoon Day. That was epicly awesome. I got to spend all day going on rides hanging out with Jeremiah and Ryan, the Choir (Including Mr. and Mrs. Smith!), and a whole gaggle of my other amazing freinds! I had a blast. The next day was the last day of school, and we had the talent show, that was good... And then a drawing, in which I kept my tradition of never winning anything... And then we had a time to sign yearbooks and say goodbye... And that was it. The school year is over, and we've left Midvale behind... Such a sorrowful parting... Anyways that night we had a year end party at Classic Skating, with Rachel O. and Allie and Bekah and Jessica and Evan and Daniel and Lucky. I had a lot of fun, even though I fail at skating... I had fun just being with them.

Okay, this was an interesting week. Tuesday I went to the West Jordan High School Choir Performance. Kat and Sam Boldrin and Justin Cook and Tanner DeHaan are all in those choirs, and let me say those choirs are amazing. It helps that they have a choir director who really knows what he's doing- Mr. DeHaan, who lives in our ward. Quin and Jason will both be in Choir at West Jordan next year. I'm going to do choir at Hillcrest. I'm currently signed up for Mixed Choir, but Aerin says that Sophmore guys can sign up for Concert Choir, cause they need more guys.

Thursday was out Combined Choir Rock Concert. Midvale Middle's two choirs and Mount Jordan's two choirs combined to make one big combined choir, and along with a live band called "The I.B." We created the most epicly awesome Middle School Concert of the YEAR! We were rocking out all night to Beatles and Queen, along with other rock songs like "Kiss from a Rose" and "Heartbreaker". I got to do a Solo for "Here, There, and Everywhere" by the Beatles, as well as do my own part during the finale, "Hey Jude".

Away from Concerts, Friday after school was the Ninth Grade Dance. It was kind of lame, cause it was only an hour long and they only played two slow songs, and only like 30 people showed up, so the gym was empty, but that made it kind of cool too, cause we had like half the gym to ourselves. And Gregory showed us just how good of a dancer he is, which was a little surprising, though not much.

After that, Evan invited me and Daniel to go to the Blaze game. So we went, and we got the stadium, and they told us that we had to stand in the Box Office line to get our vouchers turned into tickets, so we were all like "Where's the line?" And then we saw it... And it wrapped around the parking lot... It was HUGE. So Evan's dad was like... "Let's go to a movie." So we went and saw Iron Man 2. Interesting movie, not one of my favorites, but I liked it.

Saturday was boring...

Sunday evening we had Raechel and Calvin over and we played games. It was pretty fun. I love those guys.

Today we went up to Brigham City, went to visit my Grandpa at the Cemetary, and then went to Aunt Joelle's house. Megan had her baby today, so I have a new baby cousin.

So this last week has been interesting... I talked about the Talent Show and the Guitar Performance in my last post, both went well. I need to find a way to record some of my songs... Except we have no digital video camera. And no sound recording stuff either. Oh well... We're doing an Environmental Summit in Spanish, that's going well... We're playing Assassin at school. If you don't know what that is, you can find it here... or our wikispace here. You can only play if you go to Midvale, cause that's where it takes place... My brain feels melted. So that's my week.

 Oh, wow, were do I start? I've been getting really into music lately. Listening a lot more to music that I've liked sorta in the back of my head and never really bothered to actively listen to. I"ve got a  playlist of such songs playing right now, and I think I'm going to post each new song as it comes on. :D (Hey, Soul Sister. Daniel's Song!) Ah, crap, my headphone's are wigging out... Rearranging the cords... Okay, that took longer then I would've liked, but oh well. (Now we're on to the next song... You Belong With Me. Athena's Song!) Okay, quick thing on this song, I LOVE the music video for this song... I was watching it... and I was like "YES! YES! YES! This is how it should be! I especially like that at the end they're at prom, and the girlfriend is in this bizzare dress that's like totally immodest, and Taylor walks in wearing this really pretty modest dress, and he chooses her over his girlfriend. :D :D :D

Okay, then... Guitar class! We had our school performance, which only had three songs, but I sung for "This Train". It was... interesting. (I sang it an octave too low.) (Best Days of Your Life) And I'm actually working on some homework while I do this... (Why? I should just do one... I dunno. Thanks for the Memories) I've been working on figuring out new things on my guitar, including trying to play some of my songs I wrote a while ago and could never figure out. I kinda want an Electric Guitar, just because there are some things that you can't do with an acoustic. Electrics make a very unique sound... (Apologize) (100 Years)

Wednesday we are having our Combined YM/YW Talent Show. I'm going to perform a song I wrote called "Sky" (I'll post the lyrics sometime...) Robby want's me to play the guitar for him while he sings "Fireflies", so I'm trying to create an arrangement of that for him... Thursday is our Guitar concert, and I tried out for a solo for that and got it, so I will be singing "Sky" there too. (Don't Stop Believing - Sam Tsui Version) Have you ever listened to Sam Tsui? He's really good. I really like him. For those of you who don't know, my new hero is Adam Young. Not only do I love his music (He's more commonly known as Owl City.) But with his first few albums, he did all the music himself. So he's good at singing, keyboard, guitar, and music editing. I so wish I had his talent.

Now on to Choir! Our Rock Concert is coming along. A week ago was Solos week, where we went through all the songs and whoever wanted a solo could try out. I tried out for almost all of them, just to try out and see what I could do. And I ended up getting the solo for "Here, There, and Everywhere" by the Beatles. Mr. Smith said I did amazing at that solo. It wasn't actually in my top three that I wanted, but it was the one I did the best according to him. I'm really excited for this concert. Today was our first combined rehearsal, because for the concert we'll be combined with mixed choir and Mount Jordan Middles' two choirs. (Time After Time - Quietdrive Version) And we'll be playing with a live band. Today's rehearsal was a bit of a... disaster. Our combined choir is HUGE. We couldn't all fit on the stage, our little group was actually right off the stage behind the curtains. And (Mr. Smith said this was just because the Mt. Jordan sound system sucks) none of the soloist could even hear themselves. I'm like I'm singing right into the mic, but I can't hear myself sing... The band was really loud. :P But they're really cool. I wish I had as much talent as them. (American Ride) Also, for a while me, Cory, Jason, and Brandon, would sit in the back, and at the end of "Hey Jude" wear they go "Na na na na" we were all singing background lines that we had made up. So Mr. Smith mentioned that he might like to have some people doing random solos during that part, so the four of us went to him and showed him what we'd put together, and he told us we could do that. So now I guess I'm doing two solos! That concert will be next Thursday, the 27th, at 7 at Midvale Middle School. (Crush)

Ha ha! Another Funny Story (Which might clear up some things if this ends up happening weird...)(If Today Was Your Last Day) So While Mount Jordan were doing the songs that only they are doing, we we're sitting in the audience, and I had Tesya sitting next to me, and Tyler on the other side of her. Tyler, being his normal self, was annoying Tesya to no end. I, also being my normal self, was attempting to defend her from him. (Hmm... I do that a lot with Ty...) (Savior - Adam Young Remix) So at this one point I reached around her to punch him in the arm, and right at that point Tesya turns to me and goes "Look! Smile!" And I turn and smile right in time for Mrs. Otto to take our picture... with my arm behind her reaching towards Ty... So it totally looks like I have my arm around her. :P Yeah... I think that yearbook pictures were already due though... So that picture's not going anywhere. (Crap, why do I feel like I just jinxed myself?) (February Air)

So, I think that's all I've got right now... I love music. I've been feeling more and more involved in my music. It's definately something I want to do. I want to be better at guitar and piano and learn to sing better. (Vanilla Twilight)

So the day before Mother's day, our aunt Anna Hall came down from California with Linc, Hari, and new baby Marle. (See here for Anna's blog post about Utah...) We spent Saturday with them, and then they came to church with us... Hari is like the perfect little angel! He just sat there on the bench with his Book of Mormon in his little lap, looking cute and perfect. He showed Robby up in terms of reverence. (Here's the cool part... I think he rubbed off on Robby!) Then Mom held Marle for the whole time, and it was very interesting... A couple of people did double takes at her, others were fawning over the cute little baby, and Mom was loving the attention. :D

After that we drove up to Brigham City, where we spent the day with Grandma Hall. Also there were Megan and Bobby Porter, and JoElle and Josh Derieg. We had fun, we ate lasagna, we rolled pigs... (Pig Rolling post on Megan's blog) Megan is due to have her baby boy pretty soon... That should be exciting.

I got Mom and Grandma little ornaments with phrases on them. They really liked them. I like these moments when I can show my mom how much I love her, even if sometimes I don't feel it on a day-to-day basis. I still really appreciate her.

Okay, because this is on my mind right now, I'm going to post it... In this case, italics is thoughts...

So I get home from school today, and I get a text from Daniel's phone (That he shares with his sister, Bethany.) It says "Hey do u know where daniel is?"
...What? "Didn't Evan's mom take him home?"
"When/where did u see him last?"
"At the library."

So I text Evan... "Is Daniel with you?" "No" "Did you drop him at his house?" "Yes"

Back to Bethany... "Evan says he dropped him off at his house."
"I know, we r trying to find him. Thanks for the info."

Kinda freaking out now... Has he run away? Did he just wait until Evan's mom left and then walked away? Or is it just the Bethany is looking in the wrong places and can't find him?

At the time I was talking with Kat, so I told her about it, and she had the wonderful idea that we should say a prayer to make sure he was okay... so we did so...

A few hours later, I text back... "Have you found him yet?"
"Yes, he was slightly eaten though."
What the heck?!? "Are you pulling my leg?"
"Would i ever do that?"
"Yes."

Well, Daniel just got on chat, set the whole thing straight... Basically, Bethany decided to bug Daniel by freaking me out... and it worked... Grrr.....

So then Daniel asks me to chastise her... yeah, well, I discovered I suck at that... So know overly I'm just annoyed.

As I am becoming more and more of a music lover in all (well, most) forms, I thought it appropriate to use a song title as my blog post. Plus it fits really well, because, well, I have many days that have gone by which I must now cover. Because of AP, I have not been allowing myself to get on. (So I wasn't being lazy, I just was in Lockdown Mode and wouldn't allow myself to post.) But now that AP is over, I find myself facing the massive task of covering everything I missed. Are you ready for this?

... I just realized my posts don't have dates on them... Daggett. This code that I'm using is actually a lot harder to edit then I thought. Despite my ability to edit many of the things involved, I still cannot fix some things... But I can see that my last posts were the ones I posted during that day in the Computer Lab. It was right after the last region dance, so that would make it... April 23rd. Are you kidding me? Geez... (For the record, today's date is May 17th.)

... Yeah, I can't think of how the heck I'm going to cover everything... Maybe if I had PICTURES! Stupid Camera. Let's start with the first thing that came to mind, the most prevelant thing in my recent life, AP Human Geography. After much stress and everything, the test is finally over. And that means, AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY IS FINALLY OVER! I NEVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THIS CLASS AGAIN! (Sudden impending doom feeling... Why do I feel like saying that is going to jinx me?) The test went well, some of the questions were easy, some were... interesting (The wording was kind of confusing...) For the first time ever, my brain almost went into a panic mode during a test, because I looked up at the clock and had 10 minutes left, and still had like 20 questions... (That may not sound like a problem, but do the math... It had taken me 50 minutes to do 55 questions...) Time ran out with four questions left to go. Hmm... Then the essay part, it was like as soon as she said go, everyone opened the questions, and you felt the room relax. "We know these! We know what these questions are talking about!" Everyone thinks. :D

Poor Jonathan, though... (I hope he doesn't mind me saying this...) We got back to class, and he was like "They didn't talk about the Demographic Transition Model at all on the test!"
I, confused, ask "... Did you do the essay part?"
"Yeah. Did they talk about it on that?" (As if trying to see if he just couldn't remember it...)
"Yeah, the third question was all about it."
"... There was a third question?"
At this point a look of horror crosses my face.... Ah, crap....

Let's go check my grade in that class... Hmm... Okay, he hasn't put in any of the assignments I've turned in. The good news is, I don't think my grade can actually go down from the D that it's at. (That's good news?!?) So I'm going to pass... but probably with a B if I'm really really lucky. :(

These made me laugh so hard! Hope you enjoy!

Okay, I finally made up my mind. I am changing the name of JTN Productions, because I decided it wasn't creative and maybe a bit egotistical. The new name of JTN Productions is now

SolarFlare Productions

As such, and since I really fail at graphic art as of now, I'm going to have a contest. I'm going to try to enter too, though, so you have to make something I like more then what I make. (That shouldn't be hard...) I want everyone to try and make me a new logo for SolarFlare. Try to make a simple logo (The kind that might be shown when you turn a video game on.), a Desktop background, and a flag I can put at the bottom of this blog. The prize will be to have your name featured as the winner in a post on the blog, as well as having it permanantly placed as the artist for the banner that will be at the bottom. (I know that's not really much of a prize... But this is a challenge, to beat everyone else.)

Thanks!

Last Saturday was a Region Dance. Kimber just turned 14, and so this was her first dance. I got her a nice necklace for her birthday and gave it to her at the dance, and she really liked it. (She also liked how it tinkled when she jumped and moved. She's so funny.) Maya was also there with Jeremiah, and Rachel O. was there with Allie because they had spent the day together reviewing APHG stuff. (If you're uninformed, APHG = Advanced Placement Human Geography. Or AP Human Geography. Or APHG. Whatever floats your boat.)

Monday was my mom's birthday. I got her a canvas thing that said "When I count my blessings, I count you Twice." After school we went to see "How to Train your Dragon." I really liked it. It was cool. I'm thinking I can do some research on how much of the movie was based on research, and how much was just popular and fabricated ideas. But there's actually not much known about the vikings and stuff, as most of their mythological records were destroyed, so who knows.

Tuesday we had a field trip to the Zoo. It was pretty fun. For an assignment, we were observing the Gorilla, and this zookeeper comes out and says "I'm about to feed the animals. Anyone want to help me?" Naturally, our group jumps on that. She gave Cory a big burlap sack and says "Just chuck that in there over by the gorilla, sorta up the hill." So he does, the gorilla hears it plunk and grabs it. Then he drags it up to the top of the hill and dumps out a ton of vegetables, like lettuce and broccoli heads. She gave the same thing to Riley to throw to the Orangutan. She also gave them a bottle full of frozen water with carrots suspended in there. (I think they were carrots... They were orange, at least.) She told us that the gorilla would wait until it melted, drink the water and eat the carrots. The orangutan, on the other hand, would rip the bottle open and then break the ice, picking out the carrots and sucking on ice chunks. So I had fun going to the Zoo with all of my friends. :D

Tuesday night was the Honor Choir Concert. On the way over there, I get a call from Jason (Who had left in the middle of the school day) And he frantically says "Jarom! I totally forgot about the Concert! Can you give me a ride??"

How do you forget about a concert you're in?

So we went and got him, and of course ended up in traffic on the way there, arriving 15 minutes late. (West Jordan Construction Traffic... Geez.) But everything went really well.

Wednesday night we had mutual, but I had planned to leave early to get some stuff done. After all, we were just playing basketball. But I convinced myself to stay for one game, and promptly slammed into Carl as he was turning around and landed badly on my elbow, hip, and knee. So I limped home, and I still have a little bit of a limp (Not too much) and it hurts to put my elbow on the counter.

Good Going, Jarom.
Hey, you be quiet. I thought I'd get some exercise, you know. It wasn't like I was playing basketball when I should have been doing homework becasue I wanted to, I decided I should stay with my quorum for some exercise because I've been skipping out on them lately because of how much homework I have.

So yeah. That's my happenings of late.

I'm in the computer lab at school right now, because Evan needs to retake part of the Computer Tech Test-Out (That I already passed. I was the first one! Yays!) And I wanted to come work on my Final Cut that I never got to work in Bradfield's Lab, but for some reason they are now taking the test in the computer lab. (We have five labs- the Tech Lab (Bradfield's) The Shop Lab (Cuavas') The Computer Lab, The Writing Lab, and the Library Lab.) So I'm in here doing this. Maybe I'll read my APHG book. After this.

So what's happened lately? Well, Friday was Career Day. It started with a thing in the auditorium, where we had Roger Malaga come and talk to us about his career. He is a dancer and actor, and he was the coreographer for High School Musical. He had a dance off, with some of the best dancers in the 9th grade- McKayla Whitehead, Maya Arzola, Marissa McQuinn, Diego... something, and Jacob Virgin. He did it to show us sorta what Auditions were like. And the winner was... JACOB! Yeah! You can see him dancing in this low quality video from last year's Talent Show.



After that we spereated and went to different classes. My first one was Computers, and that wasn't really that interesting. Then was Engineering, which was cool because he showed us a bunch of things that he worked with, like special metals and plastics and such. Then was Military, and a woman from the Air Force came and talked to us. She was a recruiter, so obviously she showed us all the advantages of joining the Air Force. It was pretty interesting.

Just because my camera broke is no reason to stop posting. (By the way, my watch broke too... :(   )

Since I suck epicly at this, let's start at last Thursday.

Last Thursday was the BYU Language Fair. Every year, they do a fair where they have activities for foreign language students. I know they do Spanish, German, and French. The Spanish kids, being the coolest, get the Wilkeson center and the buildings around the courtyard. They had a bunch of different events we competed in, such as Show and Tell, Skits, Language Bowl, Humorous Stories, all in Spanish. My events were Poetry and Impromptu Conversation. For poetry I had to memorize this poem and recite it:

Lázaro, por Jose Asunción Silva

"¡Ven, Lázaro!" -gritóle
el Salvador, y del sepulcro negro
el cadáver alzóse entre el sudario,
ensayó caminar, a pasos trémulos,
olió, palpó, miró, sintió, dio un grito
y lloró de contento.


Cuatro lunas más tarde, entre las sombras
del crepúsculo oscuro, en el silencio
del lugar y la hora, entre las tumbas
de antiguo cementerio,
Lázaro estaba, sollozando a solas
y envidiando a los muertos.

It's a strange poem... Here's what it means with Jose's lining, which I don't like all too much, but oh well.

"Come, Lazarus!" cried out
the Savior! And from the black seplechre,
the corpse rose among the shroud.,
he tried to walk, trembling steps
he smelt, he felt, he saw, he felt, he gave a yell
and cried with joy!

Four moons later, among the shadows
of the dark twilight, in the silence
of the place and the time, among the tombs
of the ancient cemetary,
Lazarus was weeping alone,
and envying the dead.

Yep. I got an "Excellent". Upstairs was Españolandia. For those of you who are uninformed, that roughly translates to "Spanish Land". There were a bunch of booths where you got stamps. We've been preparing for a month so we would know what to say no matter what they asked us. It was really fun.

So our Language Bowl team, which consisted of Hannah, Lindsey, Riley, Isaac... and someone else... daggett... anyways, they got first place. WOO! Then at the very end of the fair they counted up all of the Superior ratings that each school got and gave out trophies. And guess what? WE GOT THE GRAND PRIZE! That's right, Midvale Middle School won the whole Language Fair. To sorta let you know how much that means, we had High Schools and Middle Schools from all over Utah, plus a few from Idaho, and one from Oregon. YAY FOR MIDVALE!

MY CAMERA BROKE!


Epic Sadness. :( :( :(

Isn't it funny how we don't actually realize how much we like something until it's gone? I'm cameraless, and each moment I'm without I'm missing an oppurtunity I could document... (Not that I haven't missed oppurtunities before... I'm kinda bad at that. :P )

It's symptoms are somewhat strange, actually. Everything is working just fine... except the shutter button. That's right, the button that takes pictures isn't doing anything. I'm not getting an error message, the camera just doesn't know I'm pressing down the button! It's so strange!

So, yeah. I'll get back to you on that...

Guess what?? My dad just told me... He talked a little about it earlier, and I said I was interested, but I didn't think he'd actually do it! He signed me up with a group that's going to Spain for a month, so that I can try to improve my spanish. He's going with us, because he's a fluent speaker. I'm really excited! But I'm also kinda nervous, because I'm supposed to be speaking only spanish for the whole month, and I still can't speak fluently. I have to think about each phrase and congagate each verb before I say it... so I'm really slow. :P So I'll be doing that in July. Yay!

Now that my blog is officially out of date, I thought I'd do a post... and for the record, yes, my title is actually one I've used before.

So... I don't know if I actually want to go back and review it all. Couple of key things, I guess...

Been doing lots of Choir stuff. We had our concert last week, where we did our festival songs (O Magnum Mysterium, Duerme Negrito, and Hold On!) and our Disney Spectacular. I've had a lot of fun so far in choir. For our next concert we're doing a Rock Concert. We're going to have a band, and we're combining Midvale Concert and Mixed Choirs with Mount Jordan Concert and Mixed Choirs, because Mr. Smith teaches both schools. Some people aren't so happy about that. Should be interesting... Anyway, most of the songs we're doing are Beatles songs. The problem with doing a rock concert is that he wants us to do it at about the same level the songs are originally in... which means falsetto. Either I'm doing falsetto wrong, or it's normal that I can't sing more then two songs without feeling dizzy. This is going to be interesing...

It's Spring Break, and their snow on the ground outside. Oximoronic? Maybe. Welcome to Utah. Greatest Land on earth, even if it's not the greatest weather. Oh, sunlight, where are you?

Okay, I actually just went and opened the blinds, and it's sunny outside, so hopefully the snow won't stay for too long... Yay for sunlight!

I'm going to try to post more often, so that I don't have to skip so many things again. There's just so much homework to be done, I just felt overwhelmed. But I'll try to keep you all updated.

The second.

Sorry I haven't been posting, I've been doing homework.

Just thought I'd make an announcement- My Uncle Geoff and Aunt Anna just had their new baby last night. Her name is Marlene Hall, named after my grandmother. (Geoff and my Mom's mom.)

As my mom says, they're not as cute when their brand new...

Congradulations! One of my mom's (and Geoff's) sisters, Megan, is also pregnant, and I believe she's due in the next few months. So new cousins! Yays!

You know how we're supposed to be writing in a journal? Hasn't the prophet told us to do that or something? Well, I was thinking, I suppose this is mine... I mean, I write in my paper one every once in a while, but it's almost easier for me to say things here. I hope, nay, plan for this thing to be around in 50 years. We'll see how that works out.

So, anyways... Saturday was a good day. I spent the first half of the day finishing up an essay so I could have fun the second half. But I got it done. So afternoon comes, and we all dress up all nice and we go pick up Raechel and Evan to go to the temple. But, turns out, the Oquirrh Mountain Temple was closed for cleaning.

Blessing Number One- We all laugh and say "Oh well. Let's go to the Jordan River Temple!" Where else can you do that? I love living in this valley. If only it snowed less...

Blessing Number Two- The Lord definitely knows what he's doing. The timing, the Oquirrh being closed, everything had to happen exactly the way it did for what happened next to happen.

So we get to the Jordan River, and we go and get changed, and we sit down in the chapel. I'm talking with Raechel, and I look up as a girl comes out of the locker room. I sorta did a double take and then looked away, and thought "That girl looks awfully like Sam..." And so I kept quickly glancing at her, because I didn't want to stare in case it wasn't her, but it sure looked like her, and she seemed to be giving me the same glances. (I didn't realize until later that she normally where's glasses, and she wasn't...) But one of the ushers comes and moves our group along, and she was just sitting there by herself cause she didn't have a group, so he puts her in our group, and I end up sitting right next to her. Turns out, it was my friend Sam, who I barely ever get to see!

So I got to talk with Sam. She's usually a really hyper person, but she was actually really calm. She talked about how the temple helped her to calm down and focus, and how she loved the temple because that's where she could organize her thoughts. She helped me to feel the spirit while I was there. She also showed me her scriptures, which have markings all over them. She showed me her favorite scriptures and we talked about what they meant to us. I showed her a cool thing that Brother Michaelis showed me- If you look in 2 Nephi 12:2, which some people call the Utah Scripture because it says that the Lord's house will be established in the "Top of the Mountains" an Utah is a Ute Indian word for "Top of the Mountains". Anyways, if you look in that, you can look at the second line, at the U in the word mountain... directly beneath that is the T in established, and below that the A in mountains, and below that the H in hills. UTAH.


Pretty cool huh? Well, I showed her that, and topped it off by saying "The church is true!" She laughed, and marked it in her scriptures, then wrote at the top "Jarom: The Church is True!" So I was like "Now I can say that my name is in your scriptures." She laughed again, and then I thought, and was like "Wait... my name was already in your scriptures" "Yeah, you have your own book." The Book of Jarom. Ha. =D

So that was my awesome temple experiance. Later that night, I went to a Region Dance with Daniel, Evan, Jeremiah, Ryan, and Garrett. I got to meet Jeremiah's friends Cailey and Lia. Lia was really nice, and I hope I can hang out with her and Jeremiah sometime. We could have a party. =D

I've never had so much fun dancing YMCA... oh, wait, that was totally random. I danced that with Daniel and Evan, and it was pretty fun. Don't really know why.

Well, that's basically my Saturday.

So yesterday was the talent show. I was in it. I played my guitar and sang Make My Day. I was sitting there before it started, talking to Hannah and Lindsey, and Lexi goes "Jarom?" "What?" "You're shaking." "What?" "Hold your hand flat." So I did, and sure enough, I was shaking...

(Thanks to Lexi for the pictures.)

I did some editing to get this. I thought it looked pretty nice.

So everyone seemed to like it, I got a lot of people that told me it was good and they liked the song. So it was good. I wish I had some better pictures. But it's hard to take pictures in that Auditorium.

It's still quite entertaining.

Elizabeth: Girls are so afrakten
me: Afrakten?
Elizabeth: a political view
me: Meaning?
Elizabeth: to share civil potatoes
me: Civil Potatoes.
Elizabeth: yessery
me: You're becoming as random as your brother.
Elizabeth: lol it's real though
me: ?
What is it?
Elizabeth: a political view
me: No, a Civil Potato.
Elizabeth: a potato that was in the civil war
me: And Afraktins share those?
Elizabeth: no
people that are afracten
afrakten
me: Oh.
Afracten. Sorry.
Afractens share Civil Potatoes?
Elizabeth: with a k
afrakten
me: Crap.
I cannot pay attention today...
Elizabeth: me niether these afrakten always get in the way
me: Afraktens share Civil Potatoes?
Elizabeth: no
me: You said that Afraktens believe in sharing Civil Potatoes.
Elizabeth: afraktens means to share potatoes
afrakten people are potatoes in sharing
me: People are potatoes.
Elizabeth: no
afrakten people in sharing
afrakten is a plural verb noun
me: A verb noun.
Elizabeth: afrakten has many meanings
me: So it's a verb, and a plural noun?
Elizabeth: most importantly civil potatoes
but also a plural verb noun
and if you want to eat the civil potato than you have to go through the afrakten people in sharing
sharing is a place
no it's not
i meant it was a civil potato
no sharing is sharing
me: You have to go throught the people in the civil potato to get to the civil potato.
Elizabeth: no
you have to go through the afrakten to get the civil potato in sharing so that the potato is a verb noun
so the afrakten is a civil potato in sharing
me: The potatos is a verb noun only if you go through the afrakten.
Elizabeth: yes and I am an afrakten if you don't mind me sharing
me: The Civil Potato is in Sharing.
You have to go through the Afrakten People to get to the Civil Potato.
And if you get the Civil Potato, then potato is a verb noun.
Elizabeth: no
the potato is a verb noun, and you have to go through the afrakten people to get the civil potato in sharing
me: But you said potato was only a verb noun if you go through the Afrakten.
Elizabeth: not if you go through sharing though
sharing is a civil potato
me: But the Afrakten aren't in Sharing, right?
So there is a way to get to Sharing without going through the Afrakten?
Elizabeth: the ritual in in the sharing secret of the potato sharing
you may also be a civil potato in sharing
me: I don't think I'm a potato.
Elizabeth: in sharing
me: A potato in sharing is different from a potato?
Elizabeth: yes, because its a civil potato
me: What's a potato in sharing?
Elizabeth: from the civil war
me: It's still a potato.
Elizabeth: it's a afrakten people
me: But it's still a potato.
Elizabeth: well not nesasarilly
me: But it's a potato.
Just it's from the Civil War.
It's still a potato.
Elizabeth: oh well
I got to go be frakten
see ya
me: One more question.
Elizabeth: ok
me: WHAT THE HECK IS A VERB NOUN?
Elizabeth: no clue ask the senator
:)
me: *Facepalm*

So part of Solo and Ensemble was a piano compition. We had three people do Piano solos, Josh, Breanna, and Jane. Josh went first, and he was really good. Like, he's REALLY good, and I really liked his piece. But it wasn't really... jaw-dropping, you know? Breanna went, and she was good. Then Jane went. Her piece was beautiful, and the way her fingers flew across the piano, hitting at least ten notes a second, was truly amazing. So I've decided to add Jane Raty's Piano Skills to my Amazing list.

Here's the list again:

Mikayla Whitehead's Dancing
Aerin Loizos's Singing
Rachel Kirkland's Spanish Spelling
Rachel Davis's Drawing
Jeremiah Pena's Music Composing
Jane Raty's Piano Skills

Congrats, Jane! You've earned it!

She's like the Swallow
That flies so high.
She's like the river
That never runs dry.
She's like the sunshine
On the lee shore.
I love my love,
And love is no more.

It's out of wild roses she made her bed.
A stony pillow for her head.
She laid her down, no word she spoke.
Until this fair maid's heart was broke.

She's like the swallow
That flies, so high!
She's like the river
That never runs dry!
She's like the sunshine
On the lee shore!
I love my love,
And love is no more.

I love my love.
And love is no more.

Results of Solo and Ensemble. It was really fun, I love hanging out with the choir. The best performance from our school, the judges chose, was Lindsey. So congrats to her! Also, the best pianist from all the schools was our own Jane, so good job to her! All the numbers were beautiful. I ended up getting a 2+ on a scale from 1 to 5, 5 being the lowest. So pretty good for someone who's never done this before. :D

(I think that's how you pluralize hi... It doesn't seem grammatically correct, but His doesn't make sense and Hies lookes wierd.) It's been too long since I've posted, so... Yeah.

In these two weeks- that's 9 days- I've been to Science class 3 times. (Or will be. I'm counting the rest of this week.) It's kinda interesting, but everything is during 3rd period...

Oh yeah! I haven't mentioned how Solo and Ensamble went! So, I mentioned that the original plan was to do and duet with Paige and do a solo, but Paige still has no voice. (Actually I think by now it's mostly back.) So she canceled most of her numbers, except for one or two. So that was off... But I still tried out my Solo, and it made it on to District! So that's where I'll be on Thursday.

On Friday we have the talent show, and I'm performing "Make My Day" with my guitar. I'm excited, and a little nervous just because I'm not sure how good I really am, and I'm afraid I'm not going to do the song credit.

I got to go to church with Aerin and Steph on Sunday. It was awesome. I love those guys...

Sometimes I pride myself (inwardly) that I rarely get sick... but I guess that just means that when I do get sick, it hits pretty hard. :P So, I've been home all day, I missed school, which sucks a whole ton that I can't even express it, and, yeah. Life is miserable currently.

And yet I'm in a smiley mood right now... (Which is differant then a good mood, or a hyper mood. Strangely enough...)

So, here's my depressing story.

It all started yesterday. Yesterday was supposed to be one of the funnest experiances of my life. I was on the road singing with the Concert Choir, with awesome friends like Ty, Rachel, Paige, Jason, and Matthew, all day. It was going to be grand. And for a while, it was. I did the first performance fine. Somewhere between the first and second, however, I formed a small stomachache. I did the second performance with this small stomachache, and it became slightly more painful. During lunch, we went to the mall, where I had hoped to be having the time of my life, but instead I was sitting, drinking flavorless slush because the thought of eating something didn't appeal to me, hoping that if I rested then it would go away and I could perform again.

(Funny Story Break... So I got this thing from DQ called an Orange Julius... which was like a half-slushy thing that was more juicy then a regular slushie... And for some reason the juice and the ice in mine never mixed, so I ended up drinking all the juice (Again, no idea how that happened) and all that was left was this flavorless slush... so I'm just slowly drinking this stuff, and I'm walking around a bit, and I find Josh and Jason and Melissa, and I tell them my sad story, and Melissa's like "I love flavorless slush! Can I have it?" And so I think for a minute, and just think "Heck, why not?" And give it to her... so now I'm weak, miserable, and slushless...  But the look on her face was priceless. :D )

So, anyways, third performance comes, my mindset is "I'm going to do this. I'm not going to quit. I'll be fine. It's just a little pain, that's all." I so wish that was true... So we're performing, and we're halfway through "Chim Chim Cheree" When my vision goes black. Fight of Flight kicks in and I think "I have to get out of here or I'll pass out in the middle of the performance." So I turn to Jason and say "I'm gonna pass out" and walk off the stage. (Luckily, I was on the sides, out of sight from half of the audience anyways, so I just slipped off.) Jason sneaks over during one of the numbers quickly and says "Hey, did you have a partner in anything?" And I'm like "Umm... yeah, I'm supposed to Waltz with Hailey..." "Ah, crap..." So now Jason has to find Hailey a waltzing partner... (Because he's already waltzing with someone else).

As the performance gets to "Heigh-ho" The girls walk off the stage and notice me sitting on the stairs... and are all immediately concerned. (Especially Hailey, because she's like "Wait... what am I supposed to do?") So after a quick "Are you going to be okay? Are you sure?" They all go back to dance "Some Day my Prince will Come" And the waltzers step up (I'll tell it how Hailey did... "I thought I wasn't even going to do it, but then I counted and there were six guys...") So Jason got Gregory to fake a waltz (It wasn't that hard...)

After the performance, I walk out with everyone else, and Mr. Smith comes out of the back of the Auditorium going "Where's Jarom? Was Jarom on stage?" (As I walk past him... he he...) So I go "I'm right here... My vision went black, so I stepped out." And he instantly looks concerned. (Strange... I don't remember what happened next... Just that people were concerned on the bus...) Then the fourth performance came around, and I decided that for the good of my health (and the show) I just shouldn't perform... So I took my camera and recorded it instead.

Afterwards, I got some interesting comments... Lindsey walked up and said "You're feeling better?" and I said "Just a little bit" and she said "Yeah, you were really pale. You have some rosiesness back in your cheeks." Then Tesya asked me what happened, and I told her about how my vision went black, and this look of shock comes over her face (Especially because I have a small (I'd say kind of weary, but still) smile as I tell her.) So, yeah, I had people like Tesya and Melissa, who I rarely seem to talk to, it seems, giving me hugs and telling me to get better. (Or in Melissa's case, "I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE!" I've been talking to her more lately. I hope to become her friend.)

Little did I know that the worst was yet to come...

So I get home, and I feel tired, so I go, and instantly fall asleep on my bed. At least, for twenty minutes... Then Steph and Garrett start texting me. But I stay in bed until Mom gets home, when I realize, I really don't want to (I was going to say can't, but that would be an exageration) get out of bed. So I decide to just lay there... until Mom comes down, takes my temperature, and tells me I don't have a fever, and asks if I'm going to the Globetrotters game... So I decide to try walking around. That's when I needed to go to the bathroom, and let's just say I got rid of a lot of waste out of both ends...

I stayed home from the game.

(Crap, I just lost the game...)

So... I mostly rested while they were all gone, but at one point I got up to go to the restroom, and as I'm washing my hands, my vision again goes black, but this time I fall over... Luckily, I hit my head against the bathtub, which gave me enough sense to stumble down to the couch before I fall again. (I hit that armrest pretty hard, though...) Then I fall asleep again, wake up half an hour later, and walk down to my bed, change into my PJs, and zonk out for the night. :D

So... I didn't go to school today. I really hope I didn't miss too much. (Which means I hope I didn't miss more then all of the stuff I know that I missed that I shouldnt' have. :( )

Yeah...

So, I was talking with Jonathan earlier today, and he mentioned my shirt (I was wearing my "Gamemaster J.T." T-shirt that Robby made for me) and so we were talking about my blog, and Alex (I should really learn her last name...) who's sitting near us says "You have a blog?" I'm like "Yeah..." And Evan says "They're not that hard to get." And so she's like "Is yours one of those rambling blogs?"

So my question is... is it? And is that a bad thing? Help me out here.

POST

NUMBER

100!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, I have now done 100 posts on this blog! (That's this main page, not the Gallery or the Poems or anthing else.) YAY! The first milestone has been hit, with hopes of more to come. Thanks to everyone who reads this blog. :D

Okay, let's see... Things that have been happening lately.

Concert Choir is still the best class of the day. Guitar is going well, but it's mostly review right now.

Spencer got his Arrow of Light. (He'll be 11...  in 12 days...)

We're going over to Midvale Elementary tomorrow to do presentations (in spanish) about Health. Our topic is Hygiene... There's just one small problem. Paige is sick! She's in our group, but she's been sick the past few days, so we've had to improvise for our rehearsals, and I haven't been able to practice our duet. I really hope that she's feeling better tomorrow. :(

I went with Ryan and Garrett to see Avatar on Friday. It was pretty cool. Really Epic. I liked it.

Aerin is finally ungrounded! YAY!! Maybe now I can finally do something with her and Steph. (Or at least talk to her. :P )

Umm... I think that's most of my random rambling for today. :D

Okay... So I decided I was going to start using those weird labels things, because I figured they were going to come in handy. I have this dream... that I will still be using this blog regularly 20 years from now. So I went back and tried to label all of the posts I've done since number one. I decided a couple things as I looked at older posts.

A. Alot of them are totally random. Like, there are only one or two labels that fit because the post was pointless. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but still.
B. It seems like people read my blog more regularly then. I got comments on almost every post from people like Daniel who never read this anymore.
C. Some of them have pictures... he he... some people looked weird a year ago... (Of course, they didn't actually look weird, just not like they do now, which seems weird to us.

Yeah... also, I took some posts and copied them over to my gallery, since I thought that's where they should go.

Maybe I just need to stop worrying about this... But who reads this? Please tell me if you do...

I haven't posted in 7 days, so I need to.

Let's see... what's happened this week? Not much, really... and yet so much, really.

Last night we had a dodgeball tournament against the fifth ward. Before it even started, when Brielle heard about it, she said "Oh, you guys are getting creamed." Thanks for the support... I think she jinxed us. We only won one game... And Tori and Brielle were shocked when we told them that. :P But it was SO much fun.

Today we had the Power in You assembly. As ambassador, I got to run across the stage with a chalkboard that we had taped the Power in You banner to. :P But we'll actually get to plan and conduct the next few assemblies. We had Chris (Crap, what was his last name?) From Real Salt Lake come and be our MC. We had this guy from Ghana come and play and sing a song with his bongos (I think it was traditional from Africa... the language sounded African, but I don't know for sure so I don't want to say that I do... but I'm pretty sure.) Then talk about how he overcame trials. The Power in You is all about having confidence in yourself, and all you need to succeed is the Power in You.

For Solo and Ensemble, which is in 3 weeks, I'm doing a duet with Paige. Some of you have already heard about this. But we decided what song we wanted to do- Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It's really a beautiful song, one I've always liked. We went over it for the first time today. Paige is really a beautiful singer. And of all things, while we were singing, she said I had a great voice! I laughed. Anyways, I'm thinking this is going to be really beautiful in the end.

The highlight of my day today was Seminary. We decided to have a testimony meeting today, just randomly, and it was really spiritual. People were crying everywhere, the people who didn't like doing things like this were getting up and bearing their hearts, it was all very deep. Afterwards I was so full of love, and telling everyone how much I loved them. I was standing outside the building talking to Roscoe, and Paige just walks up and gives me a hug. Paige is really sweet. It just makes me think of how great my friends are.

There's one particular person I need to raise my hat to, today. So here's to Roscoe!

You are awesome! Thanks for being such a great friend, an awesome person, and a great spirit. I think you really have a gift- you have a strong spirit, and you can use that spirit to make people happy, make people smile, and make people laugh. Thank you for your awesome testimony. I am so glad to have you as a friend.

I love you all!

Heyo, all! Bytheway, my weekend wasn't all crap, because I finally got my Learner's Permit! After standing in line... for 3 housr... Thanks to all of you who kept me entertained via texting. :P

I'm feeling quite good today, because I had an awesome day yesterday! First was my first day of Guitar. I have it with Prachi, one of my friends, and Claire Kirkland, who I hope to make my friend. (Rachel laughed at me when I said that...) And Kia, who no longer hates me. Actually, when she saw me she was like "Hey! Are we going to be on better terms this year?" and I laughed and said "I'd like that."

In seminary (Which was actually before guitar, because it's 0 period) I got kicked out of my seat because by the time I showed up, Marrissa had taken it. I liked that seat... not only was it the prime seat (Right in the middle of the first row, right in front of Brother Staples) but I had gotten to like sitting next to Paige. She's such a strong spirit. But I got the seat next to her in Spanish. I don't really get to see her spirit as much... but at least I get to see her smile.

Next up was Biology, which I now have a ton of friends in. 4th is Geography, which is now kind of boring because we have half as many people and it's really quiet... Oh yeah, that reminds me! My new enrichment homeroom is Study Hall with Mr. Stucki. There's 70 people in that class. I sit on the floor next to Rachel. It's quite entertaining...

Lunch, Saunders, Language, all the same... Well, actually, on Friday I met this really nice girl named Alex, who apparently is in ALPS and in all the same classes at me, just at differant times... and we both felt kind of stupid because even though we're both 9th grade ALPS, neither of us had even heard of the other one... But now I have homeroom and Language with her. So I'm looking forward to becoming her friend.

7th period, best period of the day (For now, at least. Guitar hasn't even taken off yet.) Concert Choir! It is SO fun! Ha ha... although I didn't start it off really well. I was feeling all hyper, and I sat next to Matthew, but then I noticed that Paige was sitting in the corner by herself. She smiled at me, and I got up and tried to jump over Matthew's bag, and my foot snagged on my jeans, and I went down on my knees, and I could hear Paige go "Oh!" but I just jumped back up and smiled and walked over and said "Hey!" And she's like surprised, and like "Umm... are you okay?" "Yep. Why you sitting over here? Come sit with us!" It was kind of funny. But apparently we have 2 performances in the next two weeks, and I have to memorize all the music that half the class already has as well as some dances. Yay! And one of the performances is for a assembly that I had no idea about... That I'm supposed to be helping to PLAN...

Speaking of planning, the teacher's were in charge of Combined last night, which means I was in charge. We gave each group a scripture and made them find the meaning and then make a skit applying the meaning to real life. It was way fun. I invited Kimber and she came with Raechel, so we had a lot of fun. Afterwards we were walking home, and then I suggested we go to my house, but Kimber said her mom might not like that, so we stopped at a corner to talk about it. We ended up just spending half an hour hanging out at that corner... And it was one of the funnest things I've done this year. (All 21 days of it.)

So, Tribute time! Here's to Kimber!

Thanks for being such an awesome friend! You're so nice, and so sweet. I really enjoy talking with you and hanging out with you. Thanks for everything you do for me!

I would do one to Raechel too, but I already have. http://gamemasterjt.blogspot.com/2009/12/raechel.html I added a little to it, though, and she made me change the picture. She didn't think the last one was good.

Thanks to both of you!

Finishing up my Qs, I was thinking about the poetic lyric thing I mentioned a while back. I thought I might do it again. This is one of my favorite songs- More, by Kenneth Cope. I basically took his words, and alligned them, adding punctuation, all to maximize the meaning of the words. Enjoy.

More Steady, More Sure.
More Trusted, More Pure.
Some say it doesn't matter.

More trained and more aware,
More aim to get me there.
I climb this far,
You raise the bar!
You want my heart.

More Fierce Desire
To Stand against the wind!
More Blazing Fire
When Dark is closing in!
A more love-inspired change within,
So there's more and more of me to give.

More words to learn and know,
More etched upon my soul.
Some say it doesn't matter.

More Trite,
More True.
Less me,
And much more You.
I stretch this Tall!
You sound the Call!
You want my All.

More Fierce Desire
To stand against the wind!
More Blazing Fire
When Dark is closing in!
A more love-inspired change within.
You keep
Reaching out, you're calling out to me!

For more strength in shoulders,
To Face the War with sin!
More wise and bolder,
To Save the Souls of men!
A more Faithful Soldier to the end!
You want more and more of me to give.

More and more of me to give.
More, More,
More and more of me to give!

More Love!
More Light!
More Purpose!
More Serve with all my Might!
I need more Hope!
More Faith!
More Patience,
Each day I Pray for More,
More and more of me to give!

More Fire!
More Zeal!
More Spirit,
To know what's real!
More courage!
More joy!
More!
More and more of me, to give!

More Grateful!
More True!
More Humble
To trust,
And do you call?
I hear!
I walk the path that's set in stone,
My heart is fixed on getting home!
And what on earth could ever matter more?

More and more of me, to give.
More.

Yeah, but you know, the bad guys just have this certain tangy flavor to them, a kick. I think they taste so much better then those goody two-shoes who come around waving magic swords or light coming out of their faces.

Yeah, but you know, the good guys have this certain uberness to them, this infinitely epic quality. I prefer them to those punks who think themselves all bad.

Yeah, sometimes the baddies are lacking in epicness. But that makes them easier to catch, right?

I s'pose.

It is my privilege to be a part of a Jeremiah Pena film, Assassin.

I thought I would use this place to share some fun secrets about the film.

1. You'll notice in the first scene in the basement, as the Assassin is trying to get up from the ground, the package from "Code Name Tiger" (The stuffed tiger) is sitting there against the desk.

2. Since it's not as obvious as we tried to make it, the Assassin's accent changes through the film.

3. In the first chase through the kitchen, their are only the two people. However, in the second on (With the backup assassin and the wanted man) there's another person, sitting at the table, reading the newspaper. It's Jeremiah's Dad!

4. Yes, the guns are made from blocks. The first time Ryan (the kid) threw the big ball at me, it hit the gun and shattered it. It was pretty epic.

5. The scene were he jumps out from behind the curtains screaming was actually not in the plan. In fact, we had no idea how he was going to get out of being surrounded. But during the first take, Me and Elizabeth ran into the room and he wasn't there. Jeremiah was confused, too. "Ryan's supposed to be on the scene!" Then he jumps screaming out of the curtains, we all jump, and we decided to put that in the movie. Of course, we re-did the scene because we were laughing too hard. (And because Elizabeth went all "Flying Ninja" on me at first.)

6. If you look really, really closely (Maybe more so then is possible) the order of blocks in my gun changes because it keeps braking.

7. The cell phone that Ryan uses is the same one that he uses in the film "Bounty Hunter"

That's all I can think of right now. It was awesome making this!

IT'S OFFICIAL!

The music created by Jeremiah Pena has now been put on my Amazing List!!!!

It's a bit differant then the others, because it didn't literally make my jaw drop. But I just couldn't let that get in the way of it, especially after his newest song, "Overtaken". I listened to this song, and it just filled me with emotion. Tragedy, Anguish, it was absolutely amazing. I ended up writing a peom to it, just thoughts that came as I listened to the song, and I think it's pretty good. You can find it on my poems page, under the name Overtaken.

The list so far:

1. McKayla Whitehead's dance.
2. Aerin Loizos's singing.
3. Rachel Kirkland's spelling. (It's wierd, but true)
4. Rachel Davis's drawing.
5. Jeremiah Pena's music.

ALWAYS BE AMAZING! That's one of my mottos. And Jeremiah definately has achieved it. Good work with everything, and continue to create your wonderful music!

I hope I don't get back into the habit of not posting. That would be bad. No bueno. Me gusta que yo puedo hablar espanol poco bien. Y yo nesicito hablar en espanol con mi padre antes manana...

Yeah. So. Anywho.

I can't believe I haven't been posting, especially this week when there were things to post!

So... Winter Break, IN REVIEW!

Monday, we went sledding with Tami and Scott and Connor. (My relatives from California, if you haven't been following this since July.) And then we went to Grandma's house.

Tuesday, after a day of homework, I went to Kat's house for a party with her, Quin, Sam, Justin, Nick, Max, and Sadee. It was fun. I need to hank out with some of them more often. :P

Wednesday, again with the homework. I was going to go to mutual, but instead we went to Grandparent's one more time.

Thursday, homework, and then NEW YEAR'S EVE DANCE! Woo! It was Jeremiah's first dance, and he had a lot of fun. He he... he didn't expect to dance with anyone. But 6 girls asked him! It was pretty awesome.

Friday... I think I only did homework on Friday... but I got a lot done.

Saturday, after finishing Dracula and my paper on it, I went Ice Skating with Elizabeth, Jeremiah, and Calvin. It was fun... even though I failed... And it didn't help that they were all really good. But then we went home and played Mario and Sonic... and had a 1 1/2 hour game of curling because Calvin decided we needed 4 end matches. :P

Sunday, first Sunday of the year. 9:00 church, the fast offerings, then going home, then band practice for wednesday, then going home, then Dead Prophet's Society, then going to bed.

This week, I had a Young Men's Recognition dinner on wednesday, where I had to play my guitar and... I kinda failed... Brother McEntyre is supposed to upload the video of it to YouTube, then I'll post it maybe.

So, yeah. That's my life. How's yours? Joyous, I hope.