Uh, I never got to put this comic up from a while back...

Well, I recently came back from another piano recital at the same church, this time not playing one of my own pieces but my one signature piece by Albert Pieczonka Tarrantella. I did really well, and my sister played a piece as well, and she did pretty well also. The piece I played was probably the second hardest piece that was played at the recital, and I messed up less than the guy who did the hardest. So ha. The recital signified the end of my piano lessons for the school year. Next year, I plan to widely practice pieces from the FFIX Piano Collections, which I will transcribe onto sheet music during the summer. I'll completely blow the audience away at next year's one if I can play some of those.

Added the Dictionary of Movie Clichés to the Lists page, which has been moved to the new server.

I don't have any time for a real big entry right now... I should be studying for the rest of the weekend.

My mom forced me to invite a friend over yesterday, so I invited someone new over - his name is Ben, and although he's just a freshman, he'll soon be the king of the Drama department.

People also mistake him to be in his 20's because of his height. Seriously. On the way to the Romeo and Juliet cast party, we stopped off at Safeway for some soda, and a girl approached him in the parking lot, asking him if he could buy her some beer. To her surprise, she found that the person standing next to Ben (me) was older than him.

Anyway, that went well, and I'm actually glad mom made me take crucial time out of my study schedule to invite Ben over.

...Speaking about crucial study time...

My uncle Rob sent me two shirts for skateboarders, since I was in my "I Actually Own A Skateboard" phase when he was visiting. You've seen them before... they're those "how-to" shirts with little bathroom-symbol men on them. I made two of my own.

I've started typing that Dictionary of Movie Cliches. If anyone knows if there's something like that already out there, please contact me somehow.

I'll soon be writing a story about my walk from home to school, since I'm trying to focus on detail in writing. I make the walk twice a day, but it never gets boring. I'll try to make it as vivid as possible once I get to it.

I have nothing else to say. ...Damn.

Random Cool Thing That's Cool That I Think Is Cool For The Moment: My math book says it was published in 2001, when of course it was made in 2000 if not 1999 because I had it at the beginning of this school year. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I have been non-stop busy all week. On Wednesday, my mom sent me to that "Cafe Oasis" thing, in which I apologized to the leader of the program saying that I'm not going to sell coffee when I grow up, and took the bus home. Hooray for me standing up! Later that day, my mom had a discussion about how she absolutely despises my hair, and wanted me to dye it back to the original color.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
So I said "I'll think about it" and ended the discussion.

Today, my club finished watching Kyuketsuki Hunter "D," or for those of you who like AMERICAN STUFF, Vampire Hunter D. Ugh, you people disgust me!
...Ahem. Anyway, I can say that Vampire Hunter D is okay for something made in the 80's. And it gets a lot more credibility since its characters were designed by Amano. I'll try something a bit more modern next time (next year, that is) - the 80's colors (especially of some of the people) were getting to me.

It's really hot these days, and it's hard to study for finals in this weather. It's good that the nights are cool, and that the mornings aren't freezing like in the winter, though.

Speaking about finals, there are only 6 days of school left. I'm happy for that. Once school ends, I start back up on designing web pages for people (money!!!) and learning to drive. Also, I may be teaching piano for just a little profit, since I'm a student teacher if nothing.

Coming soon to the Swamp... the Dictionary of Movie Cliches. It is very similar to the Dictionary of RPG Cliches. There's probably something like that out there already, but what the hell, some content is better than nothing.

After seeing stuff like this, my life seems incomplete again. Things like these make me feel like I'm still a saccharine, pansy-ass MTV valley-boy like the rest of my school. Of course, who am I to single myself out, but still! I wish I could think that deeply... if I did, I wonder if I could come up with such work and design like that. Then I look at the Swamp - Blue, Green, and White. Barely any design at all. Of course, I don't want to be one to talk in lower case all of the time or put ::this:: around every statement, but heck, I just wonder how original I am compared to the rest of the world out there...

I'm not one to complain about the government and capitalism and such, because I'm not involved with anything about the government yet...

I'm not one to make anime faces, because I'm not exactly like others who do that (they can stand Slayers)

I'm not one to make a site with an original, amazing design... because... I just can't!
All I can do is make a neat, symmetrical design, without any imperfection or anything - and in design, imperfection is the key (as shown above in that link). The guy's an artist, of course, and he's older than me, but what can I do to acheieve that? An art class wouldn't take me that far, I don't think. The fact that I use NotePad to make HTML could be one thing, but still...

Envy drives me insane. I envy those who are older than me therefore have perfected their skill unlike me, or those who specialize in one skill, while I'm a jack of all trades. I can do so much stuff - piano, web design, acting, drawing, leadership, public speaking - but still, I'm not satisfied with myself. That can be a good thing, but I've heard of people who've gone insane because they can't acheieve perfection.

I think that's enough ranting for now. My seat's all sweaty.

...

Goot Nacht.

WE'RE ON THE MAIN PAGE OF BLOGGER! W00! WE'RE FAMOUS!!!
...or not.

Well, I'm done with my two big projects. And what's this? Four more to do! Yay!

My mom signed me up for this thing I extremely do not want to do. She canceled this important interview with the director of the Counselor-In-Training program tomorrow for... CAFE OASIS JOB TRAINING!!! What we do there is learn about management, finance, how to operate a cash register, how to make lattes and smoothies. My holy god. I'm not going to work at STARBUCK'S, for God's sakes. My dad and stepmom think it's as stupid as an idea as I do, but my mom would sooner kick me out of her house than cancel this thing (it's true, she's done so two times before).

In Swamp news... Bob and Ragnarok are still trying to get Blogger to work properly for them. ...Yeah.

After the confirmation service yesterday:

Gak. Must make this quick.

I get let out of P.E. really early all of the time. The teachers don't know what they're doing.
BARNES (our principal): YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DOING.

Red Mountain Dew is almost as good as Green Mountain Dew, but it looks a whole lot cooler.

I had to run home to get Vampire Hunter D because I forgot it's Tuesday.

Moved the FAQ's and IAQ's page to the new server, and updated the MIDI of the Day.

This sourdough bread is really good.

Well, I'm slacking off in the middle of big projects again. Eh, I'll be able to finish them.

This morning, I went to my confirmation ceremony, where I became a "Jewish adult," just like I did 2 years ago at my Bar Mitzvah. I was literally the center of attention, as while other confirmands introduced a prayer or uttered a little speech, I did that PLUS playing all the songs on the piano! It was placed in front of the podium, so everyone was facing me. I did a really good job playing all these Hebrew songs by ear. Whoo, that was fun. James was there, and for some odd reason, he didn't have fun! I mean, what could be more fun that sitting on one's ass for 2 hours listening to some foreign language one has no idea what it means?

Then I went to Ye Olde Generic Sleaze Faire at Mill Valley Middle School. There were the usual games and rides... the "Carnie Pushes You Off a Ladder While You Climb It" game, the "Go Really Fast On A Broken Down Ferris Wheel" ride, and the "Get Humiliated By Carnie While Smacking A Button With A Large Hammer" game. I HATED it. There was even a Star Wars exhibit, being this Marin County, home of Lucasfilms, but all there was there were three statues of Darth Maul or something. Eh. I would rather do my homework I should be doing now.

Well, time to keep reporting on the whooping crane! I must BE the whooping crane! WHOOP! WHOOP!

Added a new SiteMeter.com counter.

A few hours ago, I played in a composer's recital. I along with three other kids played our songs. I was the oldest, and mine was the best by far. People were thrown off by my talent after judging me with the bleached hair - they expected me to be some skater jerk and to play Mary Had A Little Lamb backwards or something, so that made me feel pretty good that I surprised them.

I have to memorize this 1,000,000,000-line French poem. I'm usually really good at memorizing, but this is like torture. I'm giving my brain a rest. I also have a big project on a whooping crane due on Wednesday, so that's not really lightening my load at all.